Pennsylvania oil rush

The Pennsylvania oil rush was a boom in petroleum production which occurred in northwestern Pennsylvania from 1859 to the early 1870s. It was the first oil boom in the United States.

The oil rush began in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in the Oil Creek Valley when Colonel Edwin L. Drake struck "rock oil" there. Titusville and other towns on the shores of Oil Creek expanded rapidly as oil wells and refineries shot up across the region. Oil quickly became one of the most valuable commodities in the United States and railroads expanded into Western Pennsylvania to ship petroleum to the rest of the country.

By the mid-1870s, the oil industry was well established, and the "rush" to drill wells and control production was over. Pennsylvania oil production peaked in 1891, and was later surpassed by western states such as Texas and California, but some oil industry remains in Pennsylvania.

Before petroleum was used as a fuel, oil had many uses. In Pennsylvania, the Native American tribes had been using oil from seeps for several centuries. Early European explorers discovered evidence of troughs dug alongside the creek where Native American tribes had collected oil for use as ointment, insect repellant, skin coloring and in religious ceremonies. These oil seeps, which are areas where oil spontaneously escapes the earth in gas or liquid form, were common across northern Pennsylvania. As the frontier expanded into Western Pennsylvania during the 18th century, the region became known for the oil beneath its surface, and maps of the era displayed the label “Petroleum.” With few uses for crude oil, the label served primarily to deter farmers who found the black soil inhospitable to their crops. Later, other uses became known. Crude oil began to be used as an alternative to whale oil for lamps, and inventors and scientists began to test oil for other uses, including energy.

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