PITHOLE CITY
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PITHOLE CITY |
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NAME: Pithole City COUNTY: Venango ROADS: 2WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: Snow in winter BEST TIME TO VISIT: Summer |
COMMENTS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pithole,_Pennsylvania REMAINS: Cellar holes |
| Oil production was centered in the valleys of Oil Creek and the Allegheny River when the 250 barrel-a-day Frazier Well drilled along Pithole Creek came in. Numerous other gusher wells in this isolated part of Venango County attracted thousands of fortune-seekers to the area and a town called Pithole City sprang up on the Thomas Holmden Farm in May of 1865. By September, 15,000 people lived in Pithole which had 57 hotels, a daily newspaper, and the third busiest Post Office in the state, handling more than 5500 pieces a day! But Pithole declined almost as rapidly as it grew. A combination of oil running out, major fires at wells and hastily constructed wooden city buildings, and new wells in nearby places caused the population to shrink to less than 2000 by December 1866. Today, little remains of this boomtown but cellar holes in a hillside meadow. Visitors may walk the grassy paths of former streets and view a scale model of the city at its peak in the Visitor Center which is open Memorial Day through Labor Day, Wed. Noon-5; Thurs.-Sun. 10-5. An Admission is charged. Submitted by: Kelli Kallenborn |
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