As the name implies, Petroleum Center was developed during the Pennsylvania oil rush of the mid-19th century. The first well was drilled on the George Washington McClintock Farm in 1860. Soon a small community grew about half way between Oil City and Titusville. George Henry Bissell, James Bishop and others formed the Central Petroleum Company which owned the farm when daily production topped 1,000 barrels per day. Within a short time, over 3,000 people called the Centre home with a bank, two churches, a theater, a half-dozen hotels/boarding houses, and stores serving all the needs of the growing community. Bissel & Co. Banking House stimulated economic growth with its direct ties to financial institutions in New York City.
This puzzle geocache involves a short walk around the boardwalk at Petroleum Centre in Oil Creek State Park. A tour of the boardwalk and reading the interpretive signs that describe the oil boomtown of Petroleum Centre will give you the information you need to complete this simple substitution puzzle to get the coordinates to find the hidden geocache.
The cache is not hidden at the posted coordinates. The coordinates at the top of this page will bring you to the suggested parking spot which is very close to the trailhead of the boardwalk where you should begin the puzzle walk. By the time you have completed this short quarter mile walk you should have the answers you need to provide the coordinates of the actual geocache.
The coordinates for the actual hidden cache can be expressed as N 41 31.ABC W 079 41. DEF
To solve for the missing coordinates, Just answer these six questions by walking the boardwalk to get the missing numbers.
A= The last digit in the year ---- that President Grant attended a reception here at the Central House Hotel.
B= The second digit in the year ---- that a girl named Frankie was shot in Tom Quirk’s saloon.
C= The third digit in the amount of life insurance held by George A. Anderson, the most highly insured person in the country, at the time.
D= The second digit in the amount of money that Colonel Brady ended up with at the end of a long night of gambling with Samuel A. Wood
E= The fourth digit in the year ---- that Central Petroleum Company donated the land for three churches to be built to create 3 sentinels of hope in an otherwise vicious town.
F= The total number of dollars a Teamster would have received for transporting 6 barrels of oil the four miles from Petroleum Centre to Shaffer by wagon.
This educational puzzle cache is placed with permission of DCNR- Oil Creek State Park. Please thank the Park staff for allowing us to enjoy Geocaching in Oil Creek State Park.
