1: END-DEVONIAN GEOLOGY IN THE NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA REGION AND HIGHLIGHTS OF NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA GAS-OIL HISTORY
Gordon C. Baird
Department of Geosciences
S.U.N.Y. College at Fredonia
Fredonia, NY 14063
Scott C. McKenzie
Department of Geology
Mercyhurst University
Erie, PA 16546
John A. Harper
Pennsylvania Geological Survey (retired)
Pittsburgh, PA 15222;
Joseph S. Sullivan
293 Burch Avenue
West Seneca, NY.
Introduction
Although early conceptual advances in our understanding of the subsurface geology of northwest Pennsylvania have long figured in the development of the oil and gas industry, our knowledge of outcrop-based geology of this region has generally remained sketchy. A general paucity of long, clean outcrop sections, particularly, in the area east of the Meadville meridian, has hampered attempts to eliminate uncertainties in unit correlations. Why is a better understanding of these strata of interest to the geologist and the informed public?
Herein, we focus on strata that accumulated during the last part of the Devonian time period up to the base of the Mississippian time division (362-359 million years before present). These beds are highly fossiliferous and have yielded new and exotic, undescribed fossils to the diligent collector. Moreover, the end-Devonian time-slice record in Pennsylvania was deposited during a time of mass extinction, drastic changes in climate, and regional tectonism that are only now beginning to be recognized. It is of prime interest to the present authors to establish chronostratigraphic (time-based) connections between the local/regional stratigraphic sections and key paleoclimate-, and extinction-related, signatures recognized globally by others within this interval. Herein, we focus on recent advances in correlation within the end-Devonian – into – earliest Mississippian succession, particularly, since the publication of the 74th Annual Field Conference of Pennsylvania Geologists Guidebook (see Harper 2009) and initiation of westward-directed correlation efforts by Baird and colleagues across northern Ohio.
In addition to the above geological story, we review events that spawned the modern oil and gas industry for which northwest Pennsylvania is globally remembered. Starting at Fredonia in the Empire State (STOP 1), we will examine very early, successful efforts to exploit shallow gas through spring pole drilling and even bedrock fracking techniques that predated the Drake Well event. At STOP 4, we will see the role of various contingent, and highly fortuitous, events that led up to the flow of oil from Colonel Drake’s well. We will also ride the wave of rising expectations, speculation, exploitation, and civic decline that is the legacy of the great city of Pithole if time permits (STOP 5).

1: END-DEVONIAN GEOLOGY IN THE NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA REGION AND HIGHLIGHTS OF NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA GAS-OIL HISTORY

STOP 1. Memorial to earliest drilled gas well
Monument celebrating the drilling of the first gas well drilled in America; spudded annum 1825 in Fredonia, New York.
The small size and plainness of the monument belies the importance of the event it celebrates. We are very close to the site of a commercial gas well that was drilled here in Fredonia in 1825, quite possibly the first gas well drilled in North America or anywhere. According to accounts in the 1825 Fredonia Censor, an entrepreneur by the name of William Hart, came up with the idea of drilling for commercial gas in the local shale (Upper Devonian Gowanda Shale Member of present-day usage) that reeked of gas, which bubbled up through fracture networks (joints) in the floor of Canadaway Creek (Lash and Lash, 2011). Not only did he successfully find gas at a drilled depth of 27 feet, but he was able to transport it by pipe to a containment structure where it could be metered for use by village establishments and individuals. To economically control gas distribution, he developed the Gasometer, a sheet iron container filled with gas that was buoyant within a water-filled, rock-enclosed space; when completely gas-filled, the gasometer would rise to nearly the top of the water-filled space. When gas was drawn off by customers, it would sink, proportionally to discharge and appropriate fees. According to the Censor, two stores, two shops, and a mill had working gas outlets and 36 metered lights were in operation by late 1825 (Lash and Lash, 2011).
By the 1850s, gas use in Fredonia had increased. At this time, another Fredonian by the name of Preston Barmore, with two other associates, set up the Fredonia Natural gas Company Inc. in 1858. Prior to this event Preston had drilled two wells in the shale with only limited success. By noting the escape of the bubbling gas through fracture networks (joints), he came up with the idea of stimulating wells with explosives. In the summer of 1857, using gunpowder, he successfully fracked one of his wells at a depth of 122 feet and greatly increased his yield, two years before Colonel Drake’s experiment (Lash and Lash, 2011). Finally, he set up a well pumping system to remove water from the borehole, thus, securing a considerable increase of gas. By the end of 1858, gas was available in sufficient quantity to meet a vastly greater demand in town (1,200 lights or burners). Fredonia had become a city of light (Lash and Lash, 2012). For his efforts, Preston Barmore could be referred to as “the first petroleum engineer”.

STOP 2. Stratigraphy and paleontology of the classic Union City Dam spillway succession
Stratigraphy. Depart from vehicles and proceed first to spillway overlook. Following discussion of the units, we will proceed down the access road and examine the section from a safe vantage point. We thank the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) for permission to visit the site and to surface collect fossils over the years. For safety reasons the ACE requires advance notice of visits, plus the wearing of hard hats and secure footwear. Because of overhanging sandstone blocks please keep to the center of the spillway.
Top-Chadakoin Formation-base-Venango Group succession. Two key stratigraphic divisions are visible in the 30 meter (95 foot)-thick spillway succession. The main, 25 meter (78 foot)-thick part of the section is the shale-dominated uppermost interval of the Chadakoin Formation. This is abruptly succeeded by an approximately 5 meter (15-17 foot)-thick interval of Panama Sandstone, a massive, quartzose unit which is also known by the driller term “first Venango sand”; prior to recent modifications of this section, the Panama could be seen as a bluff-forming bench along the top of this outcrop. The Panama is the lowest of a long succession of siltstone and sandstone divisions comprising the Venango Group in northwest Pennsylvania.
Top-Chadakoin succession. The top-Chadakoin succession here is exceptionally shaley when compared to the siltstone-dominated, top-Chadakoin succession below the LeBoeuf Sandstone in the Erie, PA area. Moreover, this shale interval is notable for soft-sediment deformation and what appears to be disjunctive cleavage at several levels. However, in the Sherman-Stedman area in western Chautauqua County, essentially identical facies occurs below the Panama Sandstone at sections flowing into French Creek (Baird and Lash, 1990). Because this shale was so very different from typical underlying tempestite-dominated deposits of the Ellicott Member, it was informally termed the “chip cleaved shale” division of the Ellicott succession (Baird and Lash, 1990). The course of French Creek appears to be aligned to end-Chadakoin paleoenvironmental depositional strike as suggested by the distribution of this shale belt.
Panama Sandstone. Although in-situ Panama Sandstone is not accessible here, fall-down debris from it can be sampled. The base of the Panama appears to mark a discontinuity in this area; the contact is knife-sharp and the lithologic discordance with the underlying shale succession is very conspicuous. At the top of the massive sandstone interval is a bed containing quartz pebbles in association with disarticulated valves of the brachiopod Cyrtospirifer. This may mark the base of the succeeding Venango division, known as the Amity Shale; as such this bed may represent a transgressive lag deposit which caps the Panama Sandstone.
Important dam spillway succession fossils. The Chadakoin Formation siltstones and shales exhibit rhythmic sandstone layers that thicken upwards, culminating with the resistant Panama Sandstone that caps the section. The Chadakoin succession is very fossiliferous with many brachiopods, pelecypods, trace fossils and occasional orthocone cephalopods, crinoids and starfish. One fossil frequently seen here is Armstrongia oryx (Figure 9 A), which was originally named Titusvillia drakei (see Caster, 1939). This fossil, once thought to represent a branching glass sponge, is herein reinterpreted as a trace fossil (McKenzie, 2009a). A more complete faunal and floral list is available in the 63rd Pennsylvania guidebook (Harper, 2009).
The horseshoe crab trace fossil Protolimulus eriensis (Figure 9 B) is also found in the Dam spillway. The trace is a deep resting impression faithfully preserving the shape of the horseshoe crabs’ underside raised from the lower side of slabs. Protolimulus seems to be a trace made by horseshoe crabs burrowing in the sediment to escape an influx of fresh water, bright sunlight or uncomfortable temperatures in their near shore marginal marine habitat. Because both large and small Protolimulus are found in close association, we suspect that these traces were not solely associated with egg-laying activity. Protolimulus is also found in south western New York, north east Ohio (Chagrin Shale) and in several north western and central Pennsylvania counties.
The body fossil of a horseshoe crab has been found locally and was referred to Kasibelinurus randalii, (Babcock, et al 1995). This fossil has been compared by James Lamsdell to the original Australian find and is seen to exhibit different morphology which will necessitate a redescription and new name. The body fossils do show sexual dimorphism with the females being slightly larger than the males. Body fossils include enrolled examples that may or may not show free segments on the opithosoma. This body fossil is almost certainly the maker of the Protolimulus traces.
Rarer fossils include ammonoids, Dunkleosteus plates and chondrophore hydrozoans. A very few tabulate corals have been found in the area: Pleurodictyum, an auloporid and a single small Favosites- like coral colony. Corals are extremely rare in the high Devonian (McKenzie 2009b), perhaps reflecting global patterns of diversity reduction observed during the end-Devonian Famennian stage.
In the shaly, lower Venango succession above the Panama Sandstone, we return to an assemblage dominated by numerous brachiopods but lacking horseshoe crabs, hydrozoans and the other unusual fossils. This Lower Venango contact represents a major change in the regional sedimentary environment.
Possible regional astrogeological features. There are three unusual structures in our study area that may be impact craters (Pees and Palmquist, 1983). The first is the Western New York Chautauqua structure that appears as a vague depression with Chautauqua Lake in the center. Some roads run along a ridge that partly defines the rim of the deeply buried structure. NASA astronauts photographed some ring like features partly circling the structure and extending as far as Lake Erie. The second feature is in Warren Co. PA and is centered on the community of Scandia. This structure is partly defined by a noticeable semicircular bend in the Allegheny River. The last is Pymatuning Reservoir, easily seen as a compressed but well defined circular area. Moreover, the Late Devonian Cussewago Sandstone is regionally quite thick in that region. Although these features may pre- or post-date Devonian events and be of non-impact origin, a possibility still exists that one or more may be the result of a bolide event.

STOP 3. Riceville Formation-Orangeville Shale Succession in Cora Clark Park, Meadville, PA.
Depart from vehicles and proceed to trail bordering stream. One of us (Baird) will first deliver a brief overview on the Geology and stop-set-up before leading the group to the stream. We will descend by trail from the downhill (west) corner of the grassed park area to the creek bed. The group will, then, turn right at the creek and proceed to the downstream (west) end of the creek bedrock section. Be careful walking as the bedrock surface may be wet and slippery. The stratigraphic succession presented below is in ascending order of units encountered as one proceeds upstream.
Riceville Formation. The basal 5-meter (16.5 foot) succession on this stream is developed in the upper part of the Riceville Formation. Based on measurements by White (1881) and Caster (1934), the Riceville is about 26 meters (80 feet)-thick at this meridian. However, some of this aggregate thickness includes strata included by us in younger divisions (West Mead Bed, Bennyhoof Shale, and Drake Well Formation) which we will see upstream. The visible (restricted) Riceville interval on this creek is interpreted to be the eastern, upslope phase of the Chagrin Formation in Ohio. At this locality, the Riceville is expressed as an interval dominated by tabular to lenticular, grey, slabby siltstone beds and grey-green shale interbeds. The siltstone beds weather to a grey-brown color and display sharp, erosional sole marks along their bases. Sedimentary structures observed include: ripple marks on some bedding planes, scour surfaces (sole marks) along bases of beds, and disarticulated brachiopods, bivalve, and echinoderm debris.
“West Mead Bed”. Above the Riceville interval is a compact bundle of siltstone beds which we, herein, designate the “West Mead Bed” for exposures along Bennyhoof Creek north of Meadville (Figure 6). At this creek, this unit includes 1.2 meters (3.6 feet) of resistant, closely-spaced, variably bioturbated, siltstone layers. The base of this unit is marked by a 4-6 cm (2-3 inch-) thick, very dark grey, silty mudstone bed which is floored by a lag of reworked pyrite and conodont/fish bone debris interpreted to mark the horizon of the Skinner’s Run Bed (Figure 7 A). This is succeeded by 25 cm (10 inches) of grey siltstone beds and soft shale. This unit is succeeded by 0.75 meter (2.5 feet) of hard, brown-weathering siltstone beds. The parts of this interval display dark, silty shale partings as well as dark grey siltstone beds which are intensely bioturbated (Figure 6). In particular, the ichnotaxon Helminthopsis has been observed in this interval at several Meadville area sections; this trace fossil is characteristic of basal Mississippian dysoxic deposits and is abundant in the Bartholomew Bed, a division that we will see upstream at this locality (see below). Other fossils present include the brachiopods Cyrtospirifer, Syringothyris, productids, gastropods, and the problematical conical taxon Coleolus (Figure 7 B). We believe, on the basis of conodont yields to date, as well as lithologic features, that this unit is the upslope equivalent of the black Cleveland Shale in Ohio.
“Bennyhoof Shale”. Continuing upstream, we cross a 2.4 meter (8-foot)-thick interval of soft, grey-green mudstone with associated, thin siltstone beds and lentils. We, herein, provisionally refer to this unit as the “Bennyhoof Shale” for good exposures on Bennyhoof Creek north of Meadville (Figure 8). The lowest 0.3 meter (12 inches) of this unit is heavily bioturbated, distinctly silty, and transitional with the underlying West Mead division. The middle of this unit is very shaley with only thin siltstone bed development. The top 0.7 meter (2 foot) portion of this unit is marked by a return of thicker siltstone beds; these are distinctly lenticular (channelized?) and are associated only with trace fossils.
“Drake Well Formation”. The Drake Well Formation is a name herein assigned to strata between the Bennyhoof Shale and the sub-Cussewago disconformity between the French Creek Valley region and the meridian of Union City (Figure 5 A, B). It is observed to appear in a few sections west of French Creek as a feather-edge deposit, followed by eastward thickening as younger beds appear progressively beneath the base-Cussewago contact across the study area. Although the upper part of this unit is concealed at Cora Clark Park, the lower four feet of the interval is well exposed in the creek floor above the Bennyhoof succession. The base of the Drake Well succession at this locality is marked by a diastemic contact, above which is localized development of a channelized lag bed (Figure 6). Along this contact, fish teeth and conodonts occur at the base of a concretionary siltstone lentil on the right-hand (south) side of the creek as we continue upstream. This contact and associated lag deposit appears to be coextensive with a brachiopod- and bone-rich unit in Oil Creek Valley sections which Caster (1934) had called the “Syringothyris Bed” (Figure 7 C), marking the base of Bedford Shale-equivalent deposits. Preliminary conodont information indicates that the base of the Drake Well falls in the M-U expansa zone age-range (Baird, et al., 2009a, b).
Lateral to-, and immediately above, the concretionary lentil, is a change to fossiliferous, burrowed, muddy siltstone which is well exposed in the floor of the creek. Several types of disarticulated brachiopod taxa (Cyrtospirifer , Syringothyris , and an unidentified rhynchonellid) can be seen on some bedding planes. More significantly, a large cluster of articulated and partially articulated echinoids, identified as Hyattechinus pentagonus, is visible on the righthand (south) side of the creek (Figure 7 D). The echinoids occur in association with complete and partial spicule skeletons of glass sponges which were buried with the sea urchins in the same storm event. The sponges can be seen as moldic rectilinear patterns on bedding surfaces.
Cussewago Sandstone. Following a 28-31 meter (90-100 foot)-long concealed interval along the creek, involving only a small vertical gain, an interval of disturbed strata is visible on the left-hand (southeast-facing) cutbank and in a sloped, falls ramp in the creek floor immediately upstream from the cutbank. Although these beds are highly deformed, they appear to belong, in part, within the Cussewago Sandstone succession. The Cussewago Sandstone has been traced regionally from the Grand River Valley area in Ohio, eastward to the meridian of Union City (Caster, 1934; Pepper, et al. 1954; Pashin and Ettensohn, 1995). The present authors agree with Pashin and Ettensohn (1995) that the Cussewago is the eastern equivalent of the lower (main) part of the Berea Sandstone succession in Ohio. Although the Cussewago is much thinner than the Ohio lower Berea overall, both units locally display large-scale cross-bedding, a complex internal stratigraphy, and both structural and soft-sediment bedding deformation. Pashin and Ettensohn (1995) further speculated that the sub-Cussewago disconformity was the regional signature of the end- Devonian glaciation-related eustatic drawdown event. Although shelly fossils are generally absent from most sections, plant debris and palynomorph are common on some bedding surfaces. The Cussewago is unusual for its often extreme friability; it usually weathers to soft, wet, sloped banks where groundwater exits from this unit.
The deformed interval in the southeast-facing bank is quite problematic in that two lithologies are caught up in the disturbance and that the relationship of the disturbed interval with the underlying Drake Well Formation is concealed here. A sharply-bounded block of massive, friable Cussewago Sandstone appears to be bordered or surrounded by green-grey shale which is also deformed. It is uncertain at this time whether this shale is a pre-Cussewago unit or whether it is part of the Cussewago succession. Similarly, the adjacent, ramped falls surface may be in the topmost Drake Well Formation or it too may be part of the Cussewago as well. For perspective, the basal part of the Cussewago often displays deformed greenish shale at its base in association with sandstone ball-and-pillow structures. Patterns of internal soft-sediment deformation within the Cussewago as well as pronounced spatial thickness variability for this unit accord well with the idea that the Cussewago represents transgressive backfilling of a paleovalley system. Deformed beds in the Cussewago may, thus, may be the record of local sediment-slumping events within coastal channel networks. Proceeding upstream, one can view additional, undeformed Cussewago in the north-facing, right-hand cutbank and in the low waterfall in the creek bed below the overpass of the transverse park path over the creek. An approximate total of 5 meters (16-17 feet) of Cussewago Sandstone is exposed in Cora Clark Park.
Shellhammer Hollow Formation. This is a term erected by Pepper, et al. (1954) for a succession of undifferentiated shale and sandstone units between the underlying Cussewago Sandstone and the overlying, basal Mississippian Bartholomew Bed. It is, herein, understood to include, in upward-ascending order, equivalents of Chadwick’s (1925) Hayfield Shale, an upper siltstone division of the Berea Sandstone, and an interval of silty shale below the Bartholomew Bed as discussed in greater detail in Baird et al. (2009a). At Cora Clark Park, the Shellhammer Hollow interval is 6.3 meters (20 feet)-thick. It is well exposed in a small, steep, south-facing side gully adjacent to the top-Cussewago waterfall below the park path overpass. Cora Clark Park is unusual for poor development of the Berea upper division siltstone unit; most of the 6.3 meter succession is very shaley, but a thin bundle of flaggy, partly deformed, siltstone beds in the middle of this interval appears to be what is left of the Berea siltstone division in this area.
Bartholomew Bed. The base of the confirmed Mississippian succession in the Meadville area is marked by the discrete Bartholomew Siltstone Bed (Figures 4, 5, 8 C, D). The Bartholomew Bed, ranging from 0.15-0.3 Meter (5-12 inches) in thickness across western Crawford County is an important regional marker to stratigraphers which is usually easily located in sections (Pepper, et al., 1954; Schiner and Kimmel, 1972). It is typically expressed as a falls-capping ledge of dark grey bioturbated siltstone which weathers to a rusty color in sections (Figure 8 C). The base of this bed is sharp and marks an erosional discontinuity. It is also notable for intense bioturbation by the ichnotaxon Helminthopsis which is characterized by distinctive, curved, hook-shaped markings. Helminthopsisis widely understood to be a deposit-feeding trace associated with dysoxic, offshore, Mississippian deposits. We will observe the Bartholomew Bed upstream from the park path over the creek (Figure 8 C).
Orangeville Shale. Continuing upstream past the thin and compact Bartholomew Bed we, finally, encounter a bank of dark, fissile shale exposed in south-facing cutbank. This is the basal part of a thick succession of dark grey shale, grey shale, and tabular siltstone beds known as the Orangeville Shale of Lower Mississippian age which is a widespread division across northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania (Figure 5). The basal 13 meters (40 feet) of the Orangeville consists of fissile dark grey shale in the Meadville area. In this cutbank, we see only the basal few meters of this greater interval. Body fossils are scarce in the Bartholomew Bed and lower part of the Orangeville Shale. Disarticulated Lingula and orbiculoid valves can be found at this locality.

STOP 4A: The Story of the Drake Well (history as contingency)
Many people assume that Edwin L. Drake showed up in Titusville, Pennsylvania, one day, drilled his well, and single-handedly ushered in the modern petroleum industry. Actually, there were many people involved in the effort. Drake was only part of the story, a very important part, but his place in history would not have existed were it not for a fascinating series of events, and the people involved in those events.
Samuel W. Kier (Figure 10 A), a Pittsburgh-area entrepreneur who dabbled in various enterprises, entered the salt business in 1847 and bought some property in the premier location of western Pennsylvania’s salt-well industry about 32 km (20 mi) north of Pittsburgh. He drilled two wells to the Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation, a well-known brine-producing sand at a depth of 122 m (400 ft) (Hughes, 1933). Although the wells produced a substantial amount of brine, they also produced an annoying amount of crude oil, a contaminant. According to legend, Kier’s wife developed tuberculosis in 1848 and the attending physician prescribed "American Medicinal Oil" from Kentucky (Miller, 1974). Kier recognized the medicinal oil and the salt-well contaminant were the same fluid. He turned his wife’s misfortune into a new and profitable enterprise by packaging the oil as medicine in half-pint bottles and selling them for 50 cents each. In 1850, following the advice of a prominent Philadelphia chemist, Kier set up a small still in Pittsburgh and experimented with distilling the oil. He eventually was able to distill a form of kerosene and began production of “carbon oil” for use in lamps. He also invented a lamp burner that would fit any lamp of the day and burn the "carbon oil" with little or no smoke. Single-handedly, Samuel W. Kier turned the lighting business upside-down. He was soon selling his “carbon oil” and his lamp burners in New York.
At about the same time, Dr. Francis Beattie Brewer (Figure 10 B), a Dartmouth College educated physician and son of the president of a Titusville lumbering operation called Brewer, Watson and Company, became interested in crude oil. The company owned the Hibbard farm along Oil Creek about a mile south of Titusville. Like many areas along the creek, the farm had numerous oil seeps. Francis experimented with oil he collected on the farm and pioneered the use of crude oil for legitimate medical purposes. In 1851, he convinced his father to gather the oil for sale. On July 4, 1853, Brewer, Watson and Company signed the first petroleum development lease in the U.S. with J. D. Angier of Titusville (USGS, 1980). Angier set up some wooden cribs to trap the oil and some inexpensive machinery to separate the oil from the water, allowing him to collect between 11 and 23 l (3 and 6 gal) a day, most of it used for lighting and lubrication in the sawmill (Flaherty, 2003). That fall, Brewer showed a small sample to Dr. Dixi Crosby of the Dartmouth Medical School and Professor 0. P. Hubbard of the Dartmouth Chemistry Department, both of whom examined the sample and decided it had great value. Professor Hubbard, however, said the oil would never be commercially viable because it could not be obtained in large quantities.
Another Dartmouth graduate, New York lawyer and businessman George H. Bissell (Figure 10 C), saw an advertisement for Kier’s lamp oil, which caught his interest. He also saw Brewer’s little bottle of oil in Crosby’s office while visiting. He immediately put two and two together and had the Brewer, Watson and Company oil springs inspected. The resulting report was very positive, so Bissell and his partner, Jonathan G. Eveleth, decided to organize a company, buy the land, develop the oil springs, and sell the oil for lighting. They bought both the 100-acre Hibbard farm and an adjacent 1,200-acre tract from Brewer, Watson and Company in November, 1854. A month later, they formed the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York, the world’s first oil company. Prospective New York investors were unfamiliar with crude oil, however, and were unwilling to invest in a commodity of unknown commercial value. Worried about the lack of interest in their company, Bissell and Eveleth hired Yale College chemistry professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr. (Figure 10 D) to analyze some crude oil and suggest ways it could be put to economic use. Silliman, who was arguably the country’s foremost chemist, performed a series of experiments on the oil and, in April, 1855, wrote a glowing report of its value. It was superior to most oils he had examined; it did not harden on exposure to air, produced a good flame, and could be distilled into eight useful and economically viable products.
With Silliman’s report in hand, Bissell and Eveleth were able to interest James M. Townsend (Figure 10 E), president of the City Savings Bank of New Haven, Connecticut, in their venture. Townsend and some of his associates were willing to buy into the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, but only if Bissell and Eveleth reincorporated the company from New York to Connecticut. The changeover occurred on September 18, 1855 (Giddens, 1948) and Townsend was elected president of the new company. Because Bissell and Eveleth were still in debt as a result of the cost of obtaining the land and incorporating the company, they decided to sell the land to the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company and then lease it for oil production. By chance, just a few days before the sale, Bissell learned that Pennsylvania law required property owned by non-Pennsylvania corporations to be forfeited to the state of Pennsylvania (Flaherty, 2003). So, instead of selling the land to the company, Bissell and Eveleth convinced two of the stockholders to buy it, and then leased the land from them for 99 years. It was discovered, however, that the stockholders in question had used worthless securities in the transaction. Bissell and Eveleth already had a strained relationship with Townsend and his New Haven associates; this latest fiasco only caused the company to lapse into inactivity for several years. Townsend, however, continued to be enthusiastic about the Titusville prospect.
Townsend lived in the same New Haven hotel as a 38-year-old railroad conductor and jack-of-all-trades named Edwin L. Drake (Figure 10 F). Drake knew Townsend very well and actually invested $200 in the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company. In 1857, he became ill and resigned as a railroad conductor. Knowing that Drake was still eligible for free railroad transportation, Townsend convinced him to go to Titusville and Pittsburgh to take care of some necessary legal matters. In advance of Drake’s arrival in Titusville, Townsend mailed all the legal papers and several letters to “Colonel E. L. Drake” in care of the Brewer, Watson and Company. Drake was never in the military, but the title “Colonel” carried great weight with the locals, and it stuck. He investigated the Oil Creek area, visited the oil springs and observed oil being used for lighting and lubrication at nearby sawmills. He then traveled to Pittsburgh to complete his legal business and, while there, visited the salt works north of the city. Upon returning to New Haven, Drake told Townsend all he’d seen and suggested that oil could be obtained in commercial quantities at Oil Creek. Townsend and a majority of the board of directors of the company were favorably impressed with Drake’s report. They formed the Seneca Oil Company of Connecticut on March 23, 1858. Drake was named president and leading stockholder, and a few days later he was elected general agent.
Drake moved his family to Titusville in May, 1858. At first, he tried to dig a well on the Hibbard farm, but the workmen were flushed from the hole by a gush of water. In frustration, Drake abandoned these works and decided that it would be cheaper to drill in the fashion of Pittsburgh’s salt wells. Because no one in Titusville understood drilling, he traveled to Pittsburgh to consult with salt-well owners and hire a driller. When he returned to Titusville, he ordered a six-horsepower steam engine and a "Long John" stationary tubular boiler to furnish power for drilling, and then designed an engine house and derrick (the outside of the derrick was boarded over because Drake expected to drill through the snowy northwestern Pennsylvania winter). By August, 1858 everything was ready for a driller, but the driller he had hired didn’t show up. Drake later learned that the driller thought he was crazy and only agreed to drill for oil to get rid of him. Several other drillers were hired, but none of them appeared at Titusville. Drake was about ready to abandon the idea of drilling when Lewis Peterson, one of Drake’s salt-well-operator friends, recommended William A. Smith (Figure 10 G), a tool maker who was known locally as “Uncle Billy”. He agreed to work for Drake for $2.50 per day, and threw in the services of his 15-year old son for free. “Uncle Billy” arrived in Titusville with his son and daughter in mid-May, 1959 and the rest of his family followed in July. Because the initial hole that was dug for drilling kept caving in due to flooding from Oil Creek, Drake bought 3-m- (10-ft)-long segments of iron pipe in Erie and drove them 10 m (32 ft) through the glacial outwash of Oil Creek Valley until they hit bedrock. Finally, in mid-August 1959, they began using the steam engine and drilled at a rate of about 1 m (3 ft) per day.
Meanwhile, in New Haven, the company stockholders were losing their enthusiasm for the project, and even Townsend was getting discouraged, despite continuing to support Drake financially. Finally, in frustration, Townsend decided to end the operation. He sent Drake a final remittance and told him to pay all outstanding bills and return to New Haven. In one of the more serendipitous moments in history, Townsend’s message and money failed to reach Drake until after that momentous day in late August, 1859.
On Saturday afternoon, August 27, 1859, the drillers were about to quit work until Monday when the drill bit dropped into a crevice at 21 m (69 ft), and then slipped down another 15 cm (6 in). The men put their tools away and went home without further thought. On Sunday afternoon, “Uncle Billy” visited the well and saw oil floating on top of the water. He lowered a tin container into the hole and pulled it up filled with oil. His son ran shouting, “They’ve struck oil! They’ve struck oil!” On Monday morning, Drake arrived to find “Uncle Billy” and his crew guarding the well as well as several tubs and barrels already full of oil. Unfortunately, no one bothered to gauge the production. Still, it has been estimated that the well probably produced between 0.95 and 1.2 kl (8 and 10 barrels) of oil per day.
Although the original engine house and derrick were destroyed by fire on October 7, 1859, a rebuilt version served as the backdrop of the iconic 1866 photograph of Colonel Drake (Figure 11) by John Mather that is iconic to the history of petroleum exploration.
The Aftermath. Just a few years after Drake’s success, he lost everything, and a serious bout of neuralgia kept him confined to an invalid’s chair for the remainder of his life. Destitute and seriously ill, he moved to various locations trying to find a cure, but it was not forthcoming and he died in November 1880 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Although he was buried in Bethlehem, his body was removed to Titusville in 1901 and a large monument was erected to his memory.
In 1904, on the 45th anniversary of the Drake Well, the Canadohta Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) acquired the land where Drake’s well had been drilled, and, subsequently, the American Petroleum Institute (API) established a museum and library on the site. In 1934, on the 75th anniversary of the Drake Well, API formally turned it over to the state of Pennsylvania as a historical park. In 1945, a full-scale reproduction of Drake’s engine house and derrick, including a boiler, steam engine, and other machinery of the sort that Drake used to drill his well, was built on the original well site (Figure 12). You can watch museum personnel pump oil with the working machinery; this oil is supplied by the McClintock # 1 well drilled in 1861. It is the oldest continuously producing oil well on Earth, which can be seen at Rouseville about 21 km (13 mi) to the south.
Today the 219-acre park is maintained by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. It includes the museum building, a gift shop, the working replica of the Drake Well, pre- Columbian oil pits, and numerous examples of historical oilfield equipment. The museum building houses indoor exhibits, as well as a research library of about 3,500 books and 10,600 photographs among its many interesting holdings.

STOP 4B: “type” “Drake Well Formation” section: a northwest Pennsylvania paleontological “gold mine”
This provisional unit was defined by one of us (Harper) following detailed comparisons of his subsurface work on this interval with earlier studies (see Harper, 1998; Baird et al., 2009a). As understood herein, the name “Drake Well Formation” is an approximate replacement of earlier terms “Kushequa Member” (sensu Caster, 1934) and “unnamed member” (sensu Dodge, 1992) for the western, distal, part of the Knapp Formation, which is normally characterized by coarser conglomeratic beds in its eastern area of occurrence (see review in Baird et al., 2009 A).
This railroad cut displays 7.5 meters (24 feet) which is only a lower-medial subset of the 18 meter (60 foot) total thickness of the “Drake Well” succession (Harper, 1998). The lower 3.5 meters (10 feet) of this outcrop (now partly covered) is predominantly shale with thin, tabular siltstone beds. The upper 4 meters consists of more resistant sandstone and siltstone beds which are distinctly rich in fossils (see below).
“Drake Well Formation” Fossils. The exposure near the railroad station at the entrance to the park is where the Memorial Museum and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have designated a place where fossil collecting is permitted. To avoid injury, please do not dislodge heavy rocks from the cut and do not place rocks on the railroad tracks.
The upper Devonian rocks exposed at the railroad cut have been most recently called the “Drake Well Formation” (Harper 1998; Baird, et al 2009a). The discontinuous 9 inch sandy section, approximately 4 meters above the tracks, near the top of the exposed cut has produced excellent specimens of the Phyllocarid shrimp Echinocaris randallii (Figure 9 C) and Tropidocaris as well as another undescribed phyllocarid related to Ohiocaris (McKenzie 2009c. The formation contains angular fragments of a lingulid brachiopod. Similar fragments are also seen in the Chagrin Shale in north eastern Ohio in association with several Echinocaris species. Echinocaris had molar like mandibles that would have been ideal for shell crushing (duraphagous) feeding, which may explain the fragmental brachiopod hash in both locations.
The tabulate coral Pleurodictyum, brachiopods, gastropods and occasional specimens of Porcellia (Figure 9 D), a gastropod with coiling superficially similar to a Mesozoic ammonite, are found at this site in the sandier upper beds in association with crinoid and branching bryozoan sections (McKenzie, 2009b). Porcellia was first observed here in 2011. A chondrophore hydrozoan has also been found at this exposure. Pelecypods, bryozoans and crinoid ossicles are frequently preserved as orange cavities in the sandstone. Presumably those fossils were originally preserved in pyrite or a similar replacement which has altered. Beds with a similar lithology and faunal content have been reported in the Warren, Pennsylvania area (Waverly Fm.) and in Forest County near Hunter Run. For a Drake Well formation faunal list, see Harper et al. (2009; p. 129) in the 74th Annual Pennsylvania Conference guidebook.
Titusville hosts the iconic, and enigmatic, fossil Titusvillia drakei (Figure 9 A), which was originally described from the Drake Well interval nearby (Caster, 1939). Although originally identified by Caster as a glass sponge, recent work has cast doubt on this assignment (McKenzie 2009a). Titusvillia is most likely a trace fossil and is a junior synonym of Armstrongia oryx, another trace fossil.

STOP 5. Pithole Historical Museum
Anatomy of a Ghost Town – Pithole (a cautionary tale). Originally, the area that was to later become the prosperous town of Pithole, consisted of forest and a few farms owned by Thomas and Walter Holmden and a few other farmers (Lytle, 1959). Aware of the drilling action along nearby Oil Creek, two speculators, I.N. Frazier and James Faulkner, leased a number of acres from the farmers and teamed with two other men to form the United States Petroleum Company in 1864. Pithole oil field was discovered in January, 1865, following the advice of a dowser who told Frazier and Faulkner to drill on a corner of the Thomas Holmden lease. The Frazier well, as it was called, was drilled first by spring pole then by steam engine (Darrah, 1972). At about the same time the Frazier well was being drilled, two men named Kilgore and Keenan, who had subleased part of the Holmden lease, were drilling two wells they called the Twin wells. On January 7, 1865, the Frazier Well began to flow oil at 250 barrels of oil per day (BOPD). Less than two weeks later, the Twin wells came in. When the news got out, the throngs began to arrive en mass (Darrah, 1972; Burchardt, 1989b; Flaherty, 2003). The stock of the United States Petroleum Company jumped from $6.25 to $40 a share (Lytle, 1959). In April 1865, a Boston company completed the Homestead Well 250 BOPD just 100 feet outside the boundary of the Thomas Holmden farm (Lytle, 1959), establishing that the Holmden farm was not the only productive acreage.
One of Pithole’s more interesting investors was a dashingly handsome actor named John Wilkes Booth (Figure 13). Booth and a real estate dealer named Joseph H. Simonds arrived in Venango County in June 1864 and roomed in Franklin (Michener, 1997). Simonds had acquired an interest in an oil lease of three and a half acres for Booth in December 1863 or January 1864. Booth had also purchased a 1/3rd undivided interest in a lease on the Allegheny River near Franklin that was drilled by the Dramatic Oil Company, and an undivided 1/30th of a contract in the Homestead well at Pithole (Giddens, 1947; Lytle, 1959; Michener, 1997). According to Simonds, “The whole amounted invested by him in this Allegheny River property, in every way, was about $5,000, and the other investment was about $1,000, making $6,000 in all.” (Giddens, 1947, p. 258). As it turned out, all of the investments turned sour. The Dramatic Oil Company drilled only dry holes, and the Homestead well had not yet been drilled. Booth lost interest in his investments, pulled up stakes, and left Franklin on September 27, 1864. In April 1865, the Homestead Well was completed with a flow of 250 BOPD (Lytle, 1959). That same month, the Civil War ended and President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. Imagine how history might have been different if Booth’s investments had paid off and stimulated his interest even further!
Following the discovery of Pithole field, the United States Petroleum Company divided its holdings into half-acre leases and sold 60 of its 80 leases at an average of $3,000 (Lytle, 1959; Darrah, 1972). As many as four wells were drilled to an acre. Suddenly the production of the Homestead Well jumped to 500 BOPD and that of the Frazier Well to 1,200 BOPD (Lytle, 1959; Pees, 2001). At the end of June 1865, the wells along Pithole Creek were producing 2,000 BOPD, or 1/3rd of the total world production of oil. Speculation in oil became a huge business. Tens of thousands of dollars were made and lost by selling and reselling oil leases. In July, 1865, the Holmden farm was sold for $1,300,000, the largest sum ever paid in the oil region for a single tract of land (Lytle, 1959).
Pees (2001) tells of the Grant well, which appeared to be a dry hole when drilling ceased in August 1865. The drillers were coaxed into running some tubing in the hole to increase speculation that it was, in fact, a producing well, and after pumping for four hours, the well suddenly began producing as much as 800 BOPD. The owner of the half-acre lot next to the Grant Well paid $1,600 for it that spring; after the Grant well came in, he sold it for $16,500, the highest price on record for a half-acre lease (Lytle, 1959). Also in August, the Pool well, which was not far from the Frazier Well, came in at 300 BOPD and jumped to 1,500 BOPD. It was the largest producer at Pithole.
By September 1865, Pithole field was producing 6,000 BOPD. As Lytle (1959) pointed out, there are any number of wells being drilled and produced in the world today that produce 6,000 BOPD by themselves. But, in the oil territory of northwestern Pennsylvania in 1865, this was an incredible amount of oil. The Holmden Farm alone had 96 wells either producing or being drilled and the daily rate was 4,000 BOPD. Then, the people who had bought the Holmden farm were unable to meet the terms of the sale; the sellers took back the farm and resold it to someone else for $2,000,000! After Pithole became a ghost town, the Venango County commissioners bought the Holmden farm in 1878 for $4.37. The commissioners then sold it to a private owner in 1886 for $83.76!
The Rise and Fall of Pithole City. The Thomas Holmden farm became Pithole City, planned and laid out in May 1865, with land available for development through three- or five-year leases (Stephens and Bobersky, 2007). The town was laid out on the hill in 500 lots along some 22 streets, with lots being only 33 feet wide, whereas the oil wells were sited on the flat land of the creek valley south and east of the town (Figure 14). New construction began immediately as oilmen, professional and amateur alike, stampeded to Pithole Creek to grab what they could. The Civil War had just ended, the country was flush with people anxious to invest in oil, and soldiers discharged from the army were eager for jobs, and many people were willing to lease or buy any scrap of land that held even the remotest prospect of having oil on it. The Pithole area began to see a land rush unheard of; thousands came in search of Oildorado. The forest disappeared quickly as trees were cut and shaped for lumber as the building frenzy took hold. Many buildings were dangerously flimsy; many were built and ready for occupancy within a week. Only the leading hotels, theaters, churches, and finer establishments were constructed properly. However, not a single brick or stone was used in any of this construction (Lytle, 1959).
Potable water was scarce in the early days, so it became a profitable business to haul water to the town it from distant wells and sell a drink for 10 cents. As a direct result, the business in “distilled spirits” flourished. Finally, in December 1865, a water system reservoir was completed and pipes were laid along the main street. Since Pithole had no sewage system, the larger hotels had dry wells used for sewage disposal. As a result, many first-time visitors came and went with a first impression of unassailable odor – both human waste and crude oil mixing in a very unpleasant smell.
In September 1865, Pithole had reached its zenith. It had a population of 15,000, a newspaper, a post office, two banks, two telegraph offices, a fire department, an opera house, and a huge number of hotels – more than 50 by most counts (Stephens and Bobersky, 2007). One of these, the Danforth House, a large, elegant and comfortable hotel that furnished its guests with all the conveniences of a metropolitan hotel, stood at the corner of Holmden Street and First Street (Figure 15 A). The Chase House was the finest of Pithole’s hotels. It could accommodate 200 guests, and seated 100 in its dining room. The telegraph offices were located there, and it was the general headquarters for the stage lines. It boasted a saloon on the ground floor that was furnished with a luxurious bar and numerous pictures. Murphy's Theater on First Street, the largest building in Pithole, could seat 1,000 people. Four religious denominations, Methodist, Episcopalian, United Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic conducted services at Pithole. The city boasted a social life with balls, concerts, strawberry festivals, and church socials.
Pithole was a town of law-abiding citizens early on, despite the lack of formal government, law, or jails; strangers were surprised how little drunkenness they saw on the streets (Lytle, 1959). It took until December 1865 before Pithole was incorporated as a borough and held its first election. But by the end of that year, Pithole saw the coming of ruffians and drifters. Among Pithole’s more notorious citizens were Ben Hogan and French Kate who operated a variety of brothels during the oil boom (Giddens, 1947; Lytle, 1959; Darrah, 1972; and Burgchardt, 1989a).
By August 1865, just a few short weeks before Pithole City attained its record population of 15,000, the Homestead well suddenly stopped flowing and had to be pumped. At about the same time, several wells on the Holmden Farm caught fire and burned. A fire in October 1865 destroyed $1.5 million worth of oil and properties on the flats. The Frazier and Island wells stopped flowing in November 1865, but a new completion on the Holmden Farm came in at 1,000 BOPD and spurred new interest in the area. But in January 1866, the daily production of wells drop sharply, followed in February and March by fires on Holmden Street and Brown Street that destroyed two livery stables, a brothel and two dwelling houses, among other establishments (Lytle, 1959). By February 1867, as Pithole production dropped to less than 1,000 BOPD, people began to desert Pithole for the next big thing. By the end of 1867, the town was essentially dead. Only a small handful of people stayed behind, and by 1870 nothing was left except the odd piece of discarded lumber and holes where cellars and foundations used to be. In the end, the pool of oil that brought so much excitement to the area turned out to be only 100 acres in size (Pees, 2001).
Pithole is now a National Historic Site administered by the Drake Well Museum (Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission). It is open to visitors, and many of the sites of the principal buildings have been identified and are marked with signs. Today, Pithole is gone, completely covered in grass and trees, so it is difficult to realize that so much excitement and activity once took place at this remote and isolated spot. “Streets” are kept mown, and many buildings seen in historical photos can be found as simple holes in the ground (Figure 15 B). The town is quickly approaching the state the area was in when Frazier and Faulkner first came and leased the wilderness farm of Thomas Holmden.
The First Oil Pipeline. One of Pithole’s claims to fame was the building of the first oil pipeline. Teamsters were the primary oil transporters of the day, transporting oil by wagon from Pithole to Titusville, Oil Creek, or Oil City where it would then be loaded onto railroads for shipment. The teamsters charged $3 per barrel to take the oil 5.5 miles Oil Creek. The market price of a barrel of oil at that time was about $3, so the cost of getting oil to a refinery was $6 per barrel, twice what the oilmen were getting! In the fall of 1864, Samuel Van Syckel (Figure 16) and two other men formed the Oil Transportation Association and constructed a 2-inch pipeline from Pithole to the railroad depot on Oil Creek (Figure 17). The pipeline was successful from the beginning, despite the objections of the teamsters. The pipeline was well-designed and well-built and when finished, it could transport 81 barrels of oil per hour, cutting the cost of transporting from $3 to $1 per barrel. Van Syckel’s pipeline is considered to have been the beginning of the end for the oilfield teamsters. The idea caught on immediately and soon pipelines were built from all of the principal producing fields to the refining centers in Franklin, Oil City, and Titusville. At its operational peak, the Van Syckel pipeline consisted of two 2” pipelines. With the decline of Pithole, both were dug up and salvaged. The trench was never back-filled and can still be seen in some areas along its course.