Pithole, Pennsylvania facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Pithole
Pit Hole
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The site of Pithole in October 2009. The visitor center is visible at the top of the hill.
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| Etymology: Pithole Creek | |
Map of Pithole and the surrounding area showing the city streets and Frazier Well, overlaid with modern roads and creeks
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| Country | United States |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| County | Venango |
| Founded | May 24, 1865 |
| Incorporated | November 30, 1865 |
| Unincorporated | August 1877 |
| Elevation | 1,316 ft (401 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| NRHP # | 73001667 |
Pithole, also known as Pithole City, is a famous ghost town in Cornplanter Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania. It's about 6 miles (9.7 km) from Oil Creek State Park and the Drake Well Museum. This museum is where the first commercial oil well in the United States was drilled.
Pithole grew incredibly fast and then disappeared just as quickly. It became a key place for testing new ideas in the growing petroleum industry. This made it one of the most well-known oil boomtowns.
In January 1865, oil was found at nearby wells. This brought many people, especially land investors, to the area that would become Pithole. The town was planned out in May 1865. By December of that year, it was officially a town with about 20,000 people.
However, new oil discoveries in other towns and several big fires caused people to leave Pithole. By 1877, the town was no longer officially a borough.
In 1961, the land was cleared and given to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. A visitor center was built in 1972, showing exhibits about Pithole's history. Pithole was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Contents
What's in a Name? Pithole's Origin
The city of Pithole got its name from Pithole Creek, a stream that flows through Venango County into the Allegheny River. But where the name "Pithole" itself came from is a bit of a mystery!
One idea is that early pioneers found strange cracks in the ground. Sulfur fumes would rise from these "pit-holes." Some of these holes, found where Pithole Creek meets the Allegheny River, were about 14 inches (36 cm) wide and 8 feet (2.4 m) long.
Another idea suggests the name came from ancient pits dug by earlier settlers. Some of these pits were 8 feet (2.4 m) wide and 12 feet (3.7 m) deep. They were lined with wood soaked in oil. These "pit-holes" were found along Oil Creek and in Cornplanter Township. People believe they were there before the Senecas, who lived in the area from the mid-1600s to the late 1700s.
Pithole's Location and Weather
Pithole is located in northwestern Pennsylvania. It is about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Erie and 103 miles (166 km) north-northeast of Pittsburgh. The closest cities are Titusville, about 8 miles (13 km) northwest, and Oil City, 9 miles (14 km) southwest.
Pithole was designed with four main streets running east-west: First, Second, Third, and Fourth. Five streets ran north-south: Duncan, Mason, Prather, Brown, and Holmden. All streets were 60 feet (18 m) wide, except for Duncan, which was 80 feet (24 m) wide.
July is the warmest month in Pithole. The average high temperature is 81 °F (27 °C), and the average low is 57 °F (14 °C). January is the coldest month. The average high is 32 °F (0 °C), and the average low is 13 °F (-11 °C). The area gets about 44 inches (1,100 mm) of rain each year. This heavy rain made Pithole's unpaved streets very muddy. Parts of First and Holmden Streets were covered with planks or logs to help wagons and animals get through the mud.
The Story of Pithole
The area around Pithole was once home to the Eries. They were later defeated by the Iroquois in 1653. In 1784, the Iroquois gave the land to Pennsylvania. Venango County was formed in 1800. Cornplanter Township was settled in 1795 and became a township in 1833.
In 1859, Edwin Drake successfully drilled the first oil well near Oil Creek. This was outside Titusville. Within six months, over 500 wells were built along Oil Creek. People usually drilled on flat land near big rivers. Pithole Creek, with its rougher land, didn't get much attention at first.
In January 1864, Isaiah Frazier leased 35 acres (14 ha) of land from farmer Thomas Holmden near Pithole Creek. Frazier and his partners formed the United States Petroleum Company. They started drilling what they called the United States Well, or Frazier Well, in June. On January 7, 1865, the Frazier Well struck oil!
Pithole's Oil Boom
Two weeks after the Frazier Well strike, the Twin Wells, just south of Frazier, also found oil. In May 1865, A. P. Duncan and George C. Prather bought the Holmden Farm for $25,000, plus a $75,000 bonus. They cleared the wooded area overlooking the wells and planned a town.
The town was divided into 500 lots, which went on sale on May 24. By July, Pithole's population was at least 2,000. It grew to 15,000 in September and 20,000 by Christmas. Pithole officially became a borough on November 30, 1865.
Many people in Pithole were only there for a short time. The town had 54 hotels, from simple rooming houses to fancy places like the Chase and Danforth Houses. The Astor House, Pithole's first hotel, was built in just one day! The Pithole Post Office, located in the Chase House, was the third busiest in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Three churches were built: Catholic, Methodist, and Presbyterian. Pithole's local newspaper, the Pithole Daily Record, started on September 5, 1865. The largest building was Murphy's Theater, a three-story building with 1,100 seats, which opened on September 17. However, alongside all this, "every other building [in Pithole] was a bar."
As oil production grew, transporting the oil was a big problem. Teamsters, who used horses and wagons, were the main way to move oil. They often treated their horses badly, and many horses died quickly. This caused a shortage of horses. Teamsters also sometimes refused to work or charged very high prices.
To solve this, some investors built a plank toll road from Pithole to Titusville. Samuel Van Sykle, an oil buyer, invented the world's first pipeline. It opened on October 9, 1865. This 2-inch (5.1 cm) wide, 5.5-mile (8.9 km) long pipeline connected Pithole to the Oil Creek Railroad. It could move 81 barrels (12,900 L) of oil per hour, which was like 300 teams of horses working for 10 hours! A fourth engine later increased its capacity to 2,500 barrels (400,000 L) a day. The Oil City and Pithole Railroad (OC&P) opened on December 18.
Another new idea developed in Pithole was the railroad tank car. This was basically two wooden tanks, each holding 80 barrels (13,000 L) of oil, placed on a flatcar (a flat train car).
Pithole's Decline
In March 1866, a group of banks owned by Charles Vernon Culver, a politician and financier, failed. This caused a financial panic in the oil region, and the oil "bubble" burst. Investors stopped coming to Pithole, and life there became quieter.
On February 24, a house caught fire. The wind spread the flames, and in two hours, most of Holmden Street and parts of other streets were destroyed. The worst fire happened on August 2, burning down several city blocks and destroying 27 wells.
In 1867, new oil strikes happened in other parts of Venango County. People started leaving Pithole, often taking their houses and businesses with them or simply abandoning their property. By December 1866, the population had dropped to 2,000. The local newspaper moved to Petroleum Center in July 1868. Both the Chase House and Murphy's Theater were sold and moved to Pleasantville in August 1868.
By the 1870 United States Census, Pithole's population was only 237. The town's official borough status was removed in August 1877. The remaining parts of the city were sold back to Venango County in 1879 for just $4.37. The Catholic church was taken apart and moved to Tionesta in 1886. The Methodist church was kept usable by donations until the 1930s. A stone altar was built and blessed by the Methodist Episcopal Church on August 27, 1959, which was 100 years after the Drake Well strike.
Visiting Pithole Today
In 1957, James B. Stevenson, who published the Titusville Herald, bought the Pithole site. He later became the chairman of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Stevenson cleared the brush from the site and gave it to the Commission in 1961.
Today, only a few foundations and mowed paths show where the buildings and streets of Pithole once stood. The Pithole site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 20, 1973. You can take a walking tour of Pithole's 84.3 acres (34.1 ha) of former streets in about 42 minutes.
The visitor center was built in 1972. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission runs it as part of the nearby Drake Well Museum. The visitor center has several exhibits, including a scale model of the city when it was at its busiest. There's also an oil-transport wagon stuck in mud and a small theater with information. The visitor center is usually open every year from the end of May (around Memorial Day) through September (around Labor Day). The season starts with the annual Wildcatter Day, which has music, tours, demonstrations, and other fun activities.
Images for kids
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The site of Pithole in October 2009. The visitor center is visible at the top of the hill.
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Map of Pithole and the surrounding area showing the city streets and Frazier Well, overlaid with modern roads and creeks
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Stereo card depicting the United States, or Frazier, Well
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View of Holmden Street from First Street
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The site of the Methodist church in Pithole
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The scale model of Pithole in the visitor center
