Pithole City is a ghost town in Cornplanter Township, Venango County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, about 6 miles (9.7 km) from Oil Creek State Park
and the Drake Well Museum, site of the world’s first commercial oil well. Pithole’s sudden growth and equally rapid decline, as well as its status as a
“proving ground” of sorts for the burgeoning petroleum industry, made it one of the most famous of oil boomtowns.
Visitors may walk the grassy paths of former streets and view a scale model of the city at its peak in the Visitor Center (this has been closed since 2009).
Oil strikes at nearby wells in January 1865 prompted a large influx of people to the area that would become Pithole, most of whom were land speculators.
The town was laid out in May 1865, and by December was incorporated with an approximate population of 20,000. At its peak, Pithole had at least 54
hotels, 3 churches, the third largest post office in Pennsylvania, a newspaper, a theater, a railroad, the world’s first pipeline and a red-light district “the
likes of Dodge City’s.” By 1866, economic growth and oil production in Pithole had slowed. Oil strikes around other nearby communities and numerous
fires drove residents away from Pithole and, by 1877, the borough was unincorporated.
The site was cleared of overgrowth and was donated to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1961. A visitor’s center, containing
exhibits pertaining to the history of Pithole, was built in the 1970s. Pithole was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The majority of the oil wells in the vicinity of Pithole and the Oil Creek valley tapped into a sandstone formation known as the Venango Third sand. The
Venango Third contained large volumes of oil under high pressure at only 450 to 550 feet (140 to 170 m) below ground level. Other oil-producing
formations in the area were “the Venango First and Second [sands], the latter often prevailing after the Third sand was lost.” At Pithole, the “first
sandstone was reached at 115 feet, the second at 345 feet, the third at 480 feet, the fourth at 600 feet, and the oil itself at 615 feet” by the Frazier Well,
according to a report by the Oil City Register.
The area around Pithole, and modern-day Venango County, was formerly inhabited by Eries, who were eventually wiped out by the Iroquois in 1653. On
October 23, 1784, the Iroquois, which included the Seneca, ceded the land to Pennsylvania in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. Venango County was formed
from portions of Allegheny and Lycoming Counties on March 12, 1800. Cornplanter Township was settled in 1795 and was incorporated on November
28, 1833.
In 1859, Edwin Drake successfully drilled the first oil well along the banks of Oil Creek, outside of Titusville in Crawford County. Within a half year, over
500 wells were built along Oil Creek, in the 16-mile corridor from Titusville to the creek’s mouth at the Allegheny River in Oil City. Other wells were
drilled down the Allegheny towards Franklin and upriver to Tionesta in Forest County. Pithole Creek did not attract the same attention from speculators
and investors, who preferred to risk their money on the tried-and-true method of drilling on flatter terrain near large rivers like the Allegheny and Oil Creek,
rather than gamble on rougher terrain. In January 1864, Isaiah Frazier leased two tracts of land, totaling 35 acres, from Thomas Holmden, a farmer along
Pithole Creek. Frazier, James Faulkner Jr., Frederick W. Jones and J. Nelson Tappan formed the United States Petroleum Company in April 1864 and
started drilling what was dubbed the United States Well, or Frazier Well, in June. On January 7, 1865, the Frazier Well struck oil.
Two weeks after the Frazier strike, the Twin Wells, just to the south of the Frazier Well, also struck oil. In May 1865, A. P. Duncan and George C.
Prather purchased the Holmden Farm, including the portions still leased to United States Petroleum, for $25,000 and a bonus of $75,000. The wooded
bluff overlooking the Frazier and Twin Wells was cleared and a town was laid out. The town was divided into 500 lots, which were put up for sale on
May 24. By July, the population was estimated to have been at least 2,000. The population of Pithole rose to 15,000 people in September and 20,000 by
Christmas. Pithole was incorporated as a borough on November 30, 1865.
In March 1866, a chain of banks owned by Charles Vernon Culver, a financier and member of United States House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s
20th congressional district, collapsed. This triggered a financial panic throughout the oil region, bursting the oil bubble. Speculators and potential investors
stopped coming to Pithole and life in Pithole settled down. In the early morning of February 24, a house caught fire and the flames were spread to other
buildings by the wind. In two hours, most of Holmden Street, and parts of Brown and Second Streets, were reduced to smoldering ashes. The worst of
multiple fires occurred on August 2, burning down several city blocks and destroying 27 wells.
When many oil strikes occurred elsewhere in Venango County in 1867, people left Pithole, often taking their houses and places of business with them or
abandoning their property. By December 1866, the population had dropped to 2,000. The newspaper was relocated to Petroleum Center in July 1868,
becoming the Petroleum Center Daily Record. Both the Chase House and Murphy’s Theater were sold in August 1868 and moved to Pleasantville. Prather
and Duncan sold their interests in Pithole before the downturn; Prather split an estimated $3 million with his two brothers and moved to Meadville, while
Duncan returned to Scotland with his fortune. The 1870 United States Census recorded the population of Pithole as only 237. The borough charter of
Pithole was officially annulled in August 1877. The remains of the city were sold, in 1879, back to Venango County for $4.37. The Catholic church was
dismantled and moved to Tionesta in 1886; the Methodist church was kept in “usable condition” through private donations before being taken down in the
1930s. A stone altar was erected and consecrated by the Methodist Episcopal Church on August 27, 1959, the centennial of the Drake Well strike.
The site was purchased in 1957 by James B. Stevenson, the publisher of the Titusville Herald, who later served as the chairman of the Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission from 1962 to 1971. Stevenson cleared the brush from the site, and donated it to the Pennsylvania Historical and
Museum Commission in 1961. Today, only a few foundations and mowed paths mark the buildings and former streets of Pithole. The site of Pithole was
listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 20, 1973. A walking tour of Pithole’s 84.3 acres of streets can be completed in 42 minutes. The
visitors center was constructed in 1975.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission operates the visitors center as part of the nearby Drake Well Museum, adjacent to Oil Creek State
Park, outside of Titusville. The visitors center contains several exhibits, including a scale model of the city at its peak, an oil-transport wagon that is stuck
in mud, and a small, informational theater. The visitors center is usually open, annually, from the Memorial Day weekend, at end of May, through Labor
Day in September. The season is kicked off with the annual Boomtown Day celebration featuring “music, tours, demonstrations and other activities”
including “an 1860s-style [mayoral] election”. Budget cuts, renovations at the Drake Well Museum, and bridge construction on Pithole Road between
Pithole and Pennsylvania Route 227, however, forced the cancellation of the festival, and the visitors center to be closed for 2010 and 2011.
and the Drake Well Museum, site of the world’s first commercial oil well. Pithole’s sudden growth and equally rapid decline, as well as its status as a
“proving ground” of sorts for the burgeoning petroleum industry, made it one of the most famous of oil boomtowns.
Visitors may walk the grassy paths of former streets and view a scale model of the city at its peak in the Visitor Center (this has been closed since 2009).
Oil strikes at nearby wells in January 1865 prompted a large influx of people to the area that would become Pithole, most of whom were land speculators.
The town was laid out in May 1865, and by December was incorporated with an approximate population of 20,000. At its peak, Pithole had at least 54
hotels, 3 churches, the third largest post office in Pennsylvania, a newspaper, a theater, a railroad, the world’s first pipeline and a red-light district “the
likes of Dodge City’s.” By 1866, economic growth and oil production in Pithole had slowed. Oil strikes around other nearby communities and numerous
fires drove residents away from Pithole and, by 1877, the borough was unincorporated.
The site was cleared of overgrowth and was donated to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1961. A visitor’s center, containing
exhibits pertaining to the history of Pithole, was built in the 1970s. Pithole was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The majority of the oil wells in the vicinity of Pithole and the Oil Creek valley tapped into a sandstone formation known as the Venango Third sand. The
Venango Third contained large volumes of oil under high pressure at only 450 to 550 feet (140 to 170 m) below ground level. Other oil-producing
formations in the area were “the Venango First and Second [sands], the latter often prevailing after the Third sand was lost.” At Pithole, the “first
sandstone was reached at 115 feet, the second at 345 feet, the third at 480 feet, the fourth at 600 feet, and the oil itself at 615 feet” by the Frazier Well,
according to a report by the Oil City Register.
The area around Pithole, and modern-day Venango County, was formerly inhabited by Eries, who were eventually wiped out by the Iroquois in 1653. On
October 23, 1784, the Iroquois, which included the Seneca, ceded the land to Pennsylvania in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix. Venango County was formed
from portions of Allegheny and Lycoming Counties on March 12, 1800. Cornplanter Township was settled in 1795 and was incorporated on November
28, 1833.
In 1859, Edwin Drake successfully drilled the first oil well along the banks of Oil Creek, outside of Titusville in Crawford County. Within a half year, over
500 wells were built along Oil Creek, in the 16-mile corridor from Titusville to the creek’s mouth at the Allegheny River in Oil City. Other wells were
drilled down the Allegheny towards Franklin and upriver to Tionesta in Forest County. Pithole Creek did not attract the same attention from speculators
and investors, who preferred to risk their money on the tried-and-true method of drilling on flatter terrain near large rivers like the Allegheny and Oil Creek,
rather than gamble on rougher terrain. In January 1864, Isaiah Frazier leased two tracts of land, totaling 35 acres, from Thomas Holmden, a farmer along
Pithole Creek. Frazier, James Faulkner Jr., Frederick W. Jones and J. Nelson Tappan formed the United States Petroleum Company in April 1864 and
started drilling what was dubbed the United States Well, or Frazier Well, in June. On January 7, 1865, the Frazier Well struck oil.
Two weeks after the Frazier strike, the Twin Wells, just to the south of the Frazier Well, also struck oil. In May 1865, A. P. Duncan and George C.
Prather purchased the Holmden Farm, including the portions still leased to United States Petroleum, for $25,000 and a bonus of $75,000. The wooded
bluff overlooking the Frazier and Twin Wells was cleared and a town was laid out. The town was divided into 500 lots, which were put up for sale on
May 24. By July, the population was estimated to have been at least 2,000. The population of Pithole rose to 15,000 people in September and 20,000 by
Christmas. Pithole was incorporated as a borough on November 30, 1865.
In March 1866, a chain of banks owned by Charles Vernon Culver, a financier and member of United States House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s
20th congressional district, collapsed. This triggered a financial panic throughout the oil region, bursting the oil bubble. Speculators and potential investors
stopped coming to Pithole and life in Pithole settled down. In the early morning of February 24, a house caught fire and the flames were spread to other
buildings by the wind. In two hours, most of Holmden Street, and parts of Brown and Second Streets, were reduced to smoldering ashes. The worst of
multiple fires occurred on August 2, burning down several city blocks and destroying 27 wells.
When many oil strikes occurred elsewhere in Venango County in 1867, people left Pithole, often taking their houses and places of business with them or
abandoning their property. By December 1866, the population had dropped to 2,000. The newspaper was relocated to Petroleum Center in July 1868,
becoming the Petroleum Center Daily Record. Both the Chase House and Murphy’s Theater were sold in August 1868 and moved to Pleasantville. Prather
and Duncan sold their interests in Pithole before the downturn; Prather split an estimated $3 million with his two brothers and moved to Meadville, while
Duncan returned to Scotland with his fortune. The 1870 United States Census recorded the population of Pithole as only 237. The borough charter of
Pithole was officially annulled in August 1877. The remains of the city were sold, in 1879, back to Venango County for $4.37. The Catholic church was
dismantled and moved to Tionesta in 1886; the Methodist church was kept in “usable condition” through private donations before being taken down in the
1930s. A stone altar was erected and consecrated by the Methodist Episcopal Church on August 27, 1959, the centennial of the Drake Well strike.
The site was purchased in 1957 by James B. Stevenson, the publisher of the Titusville Herald, who later served as the chairman of the Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission from 1962 to 1971. Stevenson cleared the brush from the site, and donated it to the Pennsylvania Historical and
Museum Commission in 1961. Today, only a few foundations and mowed paths mark the buildings and former streets of Pithole. The site of Pithole was
listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 20, 1973. A walking tour of Pithole’s 84.3 acres of streets can be completed in 42 minutes. The
visitors center was constructed in 1975.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission operates the visitors center as part of the nearby Drake Well Museum, adjacent to Oil Creek State
Park, outside of Titusville. The visitors center contains several exhibits, including a scale model of the city at its peak, an oil-transport wagon that is stuck
in mud, and a small, informational theater. The visitors center is usually open, annually, from the Memorial Day weekend, at end of May, through Labor
Day in September. The season is kicked off with the annual Boomtown Day celebration featuring “music, tours, demonstrations and other activities”
including “an 1860s-style [mayoral] election”. Budget cuts, renovations at the Drake Well Museum, and bridge construction on Pithole Road between
Pithole and Pennsylvania Route 227, however, forced the cancellation of the festival, and the visitors center to be closed for 2010 and 2011.
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Pithole City photo --
crowded with various
horse-drawn wagons,
with large storage tanks
on either side and oil
derricks visible in the
distance.
crowded with various
horse-drawn wagons,
with large storage tanks
on either side and oil
derricks visible in the
distance.