whatyareckon

By Dr. Jay Lehr~

American oil history began for certain in a valley along a creek in a remote area of northwestern Pennsylvania on August 27, 1859. There a well drilled, with the intention of profiting from the extraction of oil, by Edwin Drake reached 69.5 feet into the ground and filled with oil to within 5 inches of the surface. Numerous countries have claimed to have drilled the first commercial oil well but with far less documentation.

Historians have suggested that the most important component of Drake’s success was not the oil itself but the immediate wave of investment in oil drilling, refining and marketing that followed.

Petroleum found along the banks of properly named Oil Creek was known to Native Americans for centuries as a result of the natural oil seeps along its banks. Records in Europe about petroleum go back as far as the 1600s. It’s…