Town · Titusville, Crawford County
Titusville
Where the oil industry began in 1859, with the Drake Well Museum on the site of the first commercial well, Victorian houses built on oil money and a bike trail through Oil Creek's valley.
Titusville was a quiet lumber town until August 27, 1859, when Edwin Drake struck oil just south of town and set off the first great oil boom. Fortunes were made almost overnight, and the big houses of the boom years still line its streets. Ida Tarbell, the journalist whose history of Standard Oil helped bring about the company's breakup, grew up here.
The Drake Well Museum and Park, on the site of the first well, has a replica of Drake's derrick and engine house and a museum that tells the whole story. From there Oil Creek State Park follows the creek south through a valley once crowded with derricks and now wooded again, with a paved bike trail along the water. The ghost town of Pithole, which boomed and emptied within a few years in the 1860s, is a short drive east.
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In and around Titusville
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
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
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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Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad
Excursion trains roll down the valley where the oil business began, through Oil Creek State Park between Titusville and Rynd Farm.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Cornplanter State Forest
A compact forest of scattered tracts named for the Seneca leader Cornplanter, with old-growth pines and hemlocks along Anders Run and short, easy trails for hiking and cross-country skiing.