Industry museum in Pennsylvania, U.S.
The
Drake Well Museum and Park
is a
museum
in
Cherrytree Township, Pennsylvania
that chronicles the birth of the
American oil industry
in 1859 by Colonel
Edwin Drake
. The museum collects and preserves related artifacts. The reconstructed
Drake Well
demonstrates the first practical use of salt drilling techniques for the
extraction of petroleum
through an
oil well
.
A historic site, the museum is located in Cherrytree Township, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of
Titusville
on Drake Well Road, situated between Pennsylvania Routes
8
and
27
. The museum is accredited by the
American Alliance of Museums
.
Facilities and features
[
edit
]
The site features a reconstruction of the oil well drilled by Colonel
Edwin Drake
and working oil field equipment. The museum includes indoor and outdoor exhibits and houses a library of over 2,500 titles, over 1,000 cubic feet (28 m
3
) of manuscript material and a photographic collection with over 10,800 images. Programs include the Fall Gas-Up engine show, a spring Heritage Lecture Series, Heritage School Tours, and the Nitroglycerine Show. Visitor services include orientation film, guided tours, a museum store and more.
Nearby attractions are
Oil Creek State Park
and the
Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad
.
The State of Pennsylvania has spent US $8 million for renovation of the museum. The new permanent exhibit "There's a Drop of Oil and Gas in Your Life Everyday" features over 530 artifacts, many historic images and stories about the birth and growth of the oil and gas industries. Interactive exhibits include a discussion between John D. Rockefeller and Ida Tarbell, author of
The History of Standard Oil.
Administration
[
edit
]
Drake Well Museum and Park is administered by the
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
(PHMC) and the Friends of Drake Well, Inc.
[2]
[3]
It was formerly a
Pennsylvania state park
, but was transferred to the PHMC.
[4]
Exhibits
[
edit
]
- The
Central Power Lease
was used to pump several wells at the same time with one engine. A 20 horsepower (15 kW), Olin
hit-and-miss engine
turns an
eccentric gear
connected to many rod lines. The rod lines could be routed over or under roads to reach the wells.
A "barker" on the engine exhaust pipe gives it a distinctive sound that would allow the operators of the engine to tell it was still running, from a distance. Powered by
natural gas
, the engine is in operation daily from May to October.
- Built in 1945, the
Drake Well replica
is a "board-for-board" reconstruction of the engine house and derrick as it looked in the 1860s.
The original building was destroyed by fire in October 1859 and was replaced a month later. The museum used photographs taken by
John A. Mather
to exactly duplicate the structure. A working, reproduction
steam engine
was acquired in 1986. The engine pumps recirculated petroleum from the well from May to October. The petroleum used at Drake Well is originally from McClintock Well #1 near
Rouseville
, the oldest oil well still in operation.
- The
Silver Run Pump Station
was built in 1894 by the
National Transit Company
, a company created to manage
pipelines
for
Standard Oil
. The station remained in operation in
Franklin
until 1968 and was donated to the museum by
Pennzoil
in 1981.
- The
Visitor Center
contains an orientation film, the new permanent exhibit "There's a Drop of Oil and Gas in Your Life Everyday" and a research library. The center also has the
Amoskeag
steam pumper
Colonel Drake
(1868) from Titusville and the
photographic process
wagon like what Mather used on display.
[10]
The new exhibit also features many more artifacts including John Wilkes Booth's cane.
History
[
edit
]
Development of oil drilling
[
edit
]
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 to that time had been as a medicine for animals, humans and the early development of kerosene. In the late 1850s
Seneca Oil Company
(formerly the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company) sent its manager, Colonel Edwin L. Drake, to develop a way to produce more ‘Rock oil’ from the ‘Oil Creek’. His employer secured 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. The land was chosen because for hundreds of years Native Americans skimmed surface oil from the water near a naturally occurring ‘Oil seep’. (Even today Oil Creek still has some natural seeps). Drake tried many ways to access and skim more oil. Eventually he attempted to dig a deep hole by hand. When a hole collapse nearly killed his men, Drake attempted drilling. He was told by local water well drillers that “You cannot drill for Rock Oil”. Drake had to travel to New Kensington, PA, (over 90 miles away), to find and hire 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.
[11]
Development of transportation
[
edit
]
Teamsters
transported the oil to
barges
, which were filled and sent down Oil Creek to Oil City on the
Allegheny River
. There the oil was transferred to steamships and sent to
Pittsburgh
. In 1862, transportation switched to rail with the completion of the
Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad
between Titusville and
Corry
, where freight could be transferred to other, larger, east-west rail lines. In 1865,
pipelines
were laid directly next to the rail line and the demand for teamsters practically ended. The next year the railroad line was extended south to
Petroleum Centre
and Oil City. The
Union City and Titusville Railroad
was built in 1865, which became part of the
Philadelphia and Erie Railroad
in 1871. That fall President
Ulysses S. Grant
visited Titusville to view the booming oil industry. The first pipeline was built in 1862 and by the late 1860s, pipelines crisscrossed the oil region.
Other oil-related businesses quickly were built in the area. Eight
refineries
were built between 1862 and 1868 in the Titusville area alone. Drilling tools were needed and several iron works were built. Titusville grew from 250 residents to 10,000 almost overnight and in 1866 it incorporated as a
city
. The first oil
millionaire
, a resident of Titusville, was Jonathan Watson who owned the land where Drake's well was drilled. The same land is now part of
Oil Creek State Park
and the Drake Well Museum.
Fires
[
edit
]
Fire was always a concern around oil and one of the worst fires was on June 11, 1880. What came to be known as "Black Friday" happened when almost 300,000 barrels (48,000 m
3
) of oil burned after an oil tank was hit by
lightning
. The fire raged for three days until it finally was brought under control. Although the oil was valued at $2 million, there was no loss of life. Another fire occurred on June 5, 1892, when Oil Creek flooded and a tank of
benzine
overturned. The benzine ignited and in the ensuing explosions 60 men, women, and children died. Another lightning strike in 1894 resulted in 27,000 barrels (4,300 m
3
) lost in a fire. Oil production peaked the late 1880s and has declined greatly since, although they use other oil to pump for demonstration.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Geography
| |
---|
History
| |
---|
Industry
| |
---|
Attractions
| |
---|
|
---|
Art
| |
---|
History, culture,
and religion
| |
---|
Science, technology,
and industry
| |
---|
Children's
| |
---|