Town · Franklin, Venango County
Franklin
Where French Creek meets the Allegheny River, a Victorian county seat with oil-boom mansions, a downtown laid out around two parks, and paved river trails leading out of town.
Franklin sits where French Creek flows into the Allegheny River, a spot the French fortified in the 1750s and the British and Americans after them. The oil boom that began up Oil Creek in 1859 made it rich, and its tree-lined streets are still full of the brick business blocks and big Victorian houses that oil money built.
It is the natural base for the Oil Region. The paved Allegheny River Trail starts here and follows the river south through wooded hills, and the Samuel Justus Trail heads upriver toward Oil City. Oil Creek State Park, the Drake Well Museum and the ghost town of Pithole are all within about half an hour's drive.
Make a day of it
In and around Franklin
Rail trail · Rockland Township, Venango County
Allegheny River Trail
A paved rail trail following the wild and scenic Allegheny River south from Franklin through a deep, wooded valley, with two long railroad tunnels along the way.
State park · Cornplanter Township, Venango County
Oil Creek State Park
The valley where the oil industry was born, with a paved bike trail past the sites of vanished boomtowns, a heritage railroad, a 36-mile hiking loop and hollows full of small waterfalls.
Photo: Jason Pratt, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
History museum · Cherrytree Township, Venango County
Drake Well Museum and Park
The spot where Edwin Drake struck oil in 1859 and launched the modern petroleum industry, with a replica engine house and derrick, an oil-history museum and trails along Oil Creek.
Photo: Zamoose, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Ghost town · Cornplanter Township, Venango County
Pithole City
Mown paths on a quiet hillside trace the streets of an 1865 oil boomtown that swelled to thousands of people and emptied within a few years.
Photo: Plazak, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Also nearby
Nearby
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Allegheny River Trail
A paved rail trail following the wild and scenic Allegheny River south from Franklin through a deep, wooded valley, with two long railroad tunnels along the way.
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Oil Creek State Park
The valley where the oil industry was born, with a paved bike trail past the sites of vanished boomtowns, a heritage railroad, a 36-mile hiking loop and hollows full of small waterfalls.