24, 1937 three months after the Santa Rita No. The University of Texas received its first oil royalty payment ($516.53) on Aug. The well ceased production in 1861, and the property sold in 1864.Ī museum was constructed to commemorate Drake’s endeavor, and it sits on 22 acres surrounding the location of the Drake well.ĪOGHS also noted that the Texas oil industry celebrated an anniversary recently. After initially producing a reported 25 barrels per day, production declined 12 to 20 barrels per day. The financial success of the well was questionable. It was totally destroyed, but Drake rebuilt it a month later. The structure caught fire in October 1859. Drake had to borrow $500 to keep drilling, which culminated on August 27. Drake investors in Connecticut became frustrated and decided to pull their financial support in April 1859. Drake placed cast iron pipe down the hole. As drilling deepened, groundwater was encountered, which caused the walls of the well to collapse. The drilling rate was only three feet per day. Drilling was slow, expensive, and challenging. An engine house and derrick were constructed, and Drake purchased a steam engine, which was used to ram the drill through the soil. The Drake Well is located in northwestern Pennsylvania, Venango County, on the east bank of Oil Creek, which got its name because of natural seeps of the shallow deposits of oil that frequently flowed in the water.ĭrake hired a blacksmith and salt-well driller, William Smith, to help with the drilling. The result was more business ventures in drilling and production, transportation of crude oil from the well to locations where it could be refined, and later marketed to consumers. The Drake Well inspired more people to take the risk to drill for oil, which led to more discoveries and more oil production. “But after five months of financial setbacks and drilling problems, the locals called the well ‘Drake’s Folly.’ To improve his reputation, Connecticut investors addressed their letters to ‘Colonel’ Edwin Drake,” according to AOGHS. Why not, they could afford it.“Drilling at Oil Creek, Drake pioneered new drilling technologies, including a method of driving an iron pipe down to protect the bore’s integrity,” according to AOGHS. This short was the oil industry doing a slick piece of public relations and it is a well produced film. We started to need gasoline in huge quantities. America was going on wheels during the Eisenhower Fifties in fact Ike's main domestic program was the creation of the US Highway system, influenced by what he saw with autobahn in Germany. We know about that, most recently in the Gulf Of Mexico. Previous to this the stuff would occasionally ooze to the surface, usually in some land that someone was trying to farm and ruin things. The possibilities of petroleum were known and suspected for years, it was a question of getting it out of the ground. Drake who drilled the first oil well there. A number of name Hollywood players participated in this short subject chief among them Vincent Price who played Edwin L. This short subject produced by the American Petroleum Industry shows just how the oil industry got started in the small northwest Pennsylvania town of Titusville.
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