Edwin L. Drake drilled the First Oil Well in Titusville (Venango County), Pennsylvania (1859). The well is the centerpiece of the Drake Well Museum which is located in Oil Creek State Park. In the 1850's, new types of machinery being produced needed oil for lubrication. Previously oil had been collected from seeps (areas where oil oozed out of the ground naturally) but this could not meet the demand. Edwin L. Drake, a career railroad conductor, devised a way to drill a practical oil well. Local residents doubted Drake's oil well would be successful so it became known as "Drake's Folly". Drake persisted and hired, William "Uncle Billy" Smith (a Tarentum blacksmith and salt-well driller). They drilled three feet a day and on August 27, 1859, the well reached a depth of 69 feet. The next morning Uncle Billy discovered oil had risen in the well. Drake's idea had worked and soon the "Drake Well" was producing a steady supply of oil. About 400 gallons of pure oil were funneled into whiskey barrels every 24 hours. Within two years there was an oil boom in western Pennsylvania. With over production the price of oil dropped so low that Drake was put out of business.
WHAT DID THE LOCAL RESIDENTS IN TITUSVILLE CALL EDWIN L. DRAKE'S OIL WELL ??????
"DRAKE'S FOLLY" = N 40 48.673 W 078 54.008
"DRAKES DREAM WELL" = N 40 48.069 W 078 53.774
CONGRATULATIONS TO beans&franks FOR THE FTF