Pithole, in northwest Pennsylvania, was a boom-town spawned in the wake of the first oil well drilled in the area (1859). In 1865 the United States Petroleum Company hit a gusher near Pithole Creek. News of the strike precipitated an oil stampede. Leases sold for fabulous sums, more wells were drilled, and a city of 15,000 people arose in a whirl of speculation. By December 1866, the wells had run dry and Pithole's population had fallen to less than 2,000. The discovery of kerosene as an effective replacement for whale lamp oil drove this frantic quest for oil. Important technologies such as pipeline systems and refining techniques were first developed at this time.
Bibliography
Giddens, Paul H. The Birth of the Oil Industry. New York: Arno Press, 1972.
Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.
