Drake Well Museum - Titusville, PA
Posted by: 
Szuchie
N 41° 36.676 W 079° 39.428
17T E 611888 N 4607487
The Drake Well Museum is dedicated to the birth of the oil industry as this was where the first oil was drilled in 1859 by "Colonel" Edwin Drake!
Waymark Code: WM3EXW
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 03/25/2008
Views: 20
The Drake Well Museum is a museum that interprets the birth of the oil industry in 1859 by "Colonel" Edwin Drake along the banks of Oil Creek in Venango County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The museum collects and preserves related artifacts. Its Drake Oil Well demonstrates the first practical use of salt drilling techniques for the extraction of petroleum through an oil well.
Oil was known to exist in the Oil Creek Valley of northwestern Pennsylvania, but there was no practical way to extract it. Its main use at that time was as medicine for both animals and humans. In the late 1850s Seneca Oil Company (formerly the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company) sent its manager, Colonel Edwin L. Drake, to start drilling on a piece of leased land just south of Titusville, a slow-growing and peaceful community. Lumber was the principal industry at the time, with at least 17 sawmills in the area. Drake hired a salt well driller, William A. Smith, in the summer of 1859. After many difficulties, they finally drilled a commercially successful well on August 27. Considered the birth of the oil industry, it was an event that changed the world.
Source: Wikipedia
Price of Admission: 4.00 (listed in local currency)
Weekday Hours: From: 9:00 AM To: 5:00 PM
Weekend Hours: From: 9:00 AM To: 5:00 PM
Roadside Attractions Website: [Web Link]
Location Website: [Web Link]
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