DRAKE'S WELL Field Trip Resources

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Field Trip Resources - DRAKE'S OIL WELL

For more information, contact the Librarian for Geology.
Some of the online resources listed on this page may be restricted to UAkron students, faculty, and staff only.
For detailed information on connecting from off-campus, see: Connecting to Online Resources.

Internet Resources

Drake Well Museum

Museum Site Layout

Drake Well on Drilshop's Drilling Hall of Fame site

Life of Leonard Smith - Pioneer Oil Producer

(from a family/geneaology site)

Oil & Gas Museum - Parkersburg WV

Move Over, Col. Drake? West Virginia Stakes Pioneer Claim

Oil History by Samuel T. Pees **recommended**

The Drake Chapters

PA Heritage Regions - Oil Heritage

PA Oil and Gas Fields - PDF file, loads slowly

Physiographic Province Map of Pennsylvania (choose the High Plateau Section)
See also the Outstanding Scenic Geological Features Map for Oil Seeps in the area

Additional Area Information (Local)

Allegheny Online Magazine (Allegheny Natnl Forest info)

Venango County - Birthplace of the Oil Industry

Newspapers

Oil Creek State Park

Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad

Oil Heritage Region - Tourist info

PA Trail of History

PA Trail of Geology

Oil Creek State Park - PDF file, loads slowly

Pithole

Pithole Visitor Center
Chapter 14: Tales of Destruction...Pithole, Oilfield Ghost Town
from The Tallini Tales of Destruction - Is Nitroglycerin In This?

Titusville

Articles

Abraham, Kurt S. "World's oldest producing oil well hits 140". World Oil, 222(9) Sept 2001. p33.

Anonymous. "Striking oil: 1859". Life, 20(10A) Fall 1997. p80

Brice, William R. "Petroleum exploration; pre-Drake well". AAPG Bulletin 82(9) Sep 1998.

Drake was not the first Brice, William R. AAPG Bulletin Vol. 84, no. 9. Tulsa, OK : American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Sep. 2000.

Cohen, Paul; Cohen, Brenda. "The Drake Well Museum in Western Pennsylvania". Journal of College Science Teaching, 24(4) Feb 1995. p282-283

Flaherty, Kathy J. "As the drill-bit churns". Pennsylvania Geology 29(1) 1998.

Flaherty, Kathy J. "The science of drilling oil wells". Pennsylvania Geology 29(1) 1998.

Harper, John A. "Why the Drake Well?" Pennsylvania Geology 29(1) 1998.

Harper, John A. "Drake Well Memorial Park; a little geology, a little history". Guidebook for the Annual Field Conference of Pennsylvania Geologists Vol. 63. [Harrisburg, PA] : [Field Conference of Pennsylvania Geologists], 1998.

Laughrey, Christopher D. "The origin of oil". Pennsylvania Geology 29(1) 1998.

Moore, WDIII. "Ingenuity Sparks Drilling History". Oil and Gas Journal 75(35) August 1977, p 159-177.

Pees, Samuel T. "The opening years and subsequent events of the early oil industry in Oil Creek valley, NW Pennsylvania, U.S.A." Annual Conference - Ontario Petroleum Institute Vol. 30. Blenheim, ON : Ontario Petroleum Institute, 1991.

Pees, Samuel T. "Oil Creek's riparian wells". Pennsylvania Geology 29(1) 1998.

Vernon, Bill. "Probing Earth's History". Earth Science, 41(1) Spring 1988. p12-15

Books

Note: Click on the call number links to check current status and location in ZipLINK (for items we own).
For other titles search the OhioLINK catalog. If not available thru OhioLINK, use ILLiad to request thru ILL.

American Petroleum Institute. The burning rivers : the story of oil in America before the drilling of the Drake well in 1859. New York : Dept. of Information of the American Petroleum Institute, 1945.

Black, Brian. Petrolia : the landscape of America's first oil boom. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, c2000.
CALL # TN872.P4 B56 2000

Clark, Joseph Stanley. The oil century, from the Drake well to the conservation era. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press [1958].
CALL # HD9565 .C59x.

Darrah, William Culp. Pithole, the vanished city; a story of the early days of the petroleum industry. [Gettysburg? Pa., 1972].
CALL # F159.P5 D3.

Giddens, Paul Henry,ed. Pennsylvania petroleum, 1750-1872; a documentary history. Titusville, Pa., Drake Well Memorial Park, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1947.
CALL # TN872.P4 G522x.

Lytle, William S.; Lytle, William S. Guidebook, Drake Well centennial, 1859-1959. [Pittsburgh? : 1959].

Mather, John A.; Bell, Edwin C. Mather's historic oil regions of western Pennsylvania. 1994.

Miller, Ernest C. An investigation of North America's first oil well; who drilled it? Rutland, Vt., C.E. Tuttle Co. 1964.

Oil Well Supply Co. 75 years of progress : 1859-1934. Oil City, Pa. : Oil Well Supply Co., 1934.

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Drake Well Park : replica of world's first oil well at original. Harrisburg, Pa. : Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1967.

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Drake Well Memorial Park, Titusville, Pennsylvania : birthplace of the petroleum industry, August 27, 1859. [Harrisburg] : The Commission, 1946.

Rarick, R. Dee. The petroleum industry--its birth in Pennsylvania and development in Indiana. Bloomington, Ind. : State of Indiana, Dept. of Natural Resources, Geological Survey, 1980.
CALL # TN872.P4 R37 1980.

Sherman, Jon. Drake Well Museum and Park : Pennsylvania trail of history guide. Mechanicsburg, Pa. : Stackpole Books, 2002.

Stewart, Anne W.; Ries, Linda A.; Morrow, Dixie., and others. John A. Mather ; the legacy of Pennsylvania's oil region photographer. Titusville, [Pa.] : Colonel, 1995.

Wood, Quentin E. Quaker State roots go deep into the world's first oilfield. New York : Newcomen Society of the U.S., 1986.
CALL # HD9569.Q82 W66 1987.

Images

Terraserver image - USGS Aerial photo 5km SE of Titusville, PA

Terraserver image - Topo map of Drake Well area

Miscellaneous photos

PA photos at the DCNR site
VenangOil.com - Photos from around Venango County

Related Subject Areas

Subject Resources - Geology