America and oil have gone hand-in-hand for nearly two centuries, fueling our economy as well as the vehicles we use to get around every day. Boatloads of money have been made all over the United States wherever people have found extractable oil underground. We can clearly see the impact that oil wells have had on us in many ways today, but most people don’t know how the business began.
The first oil well in the US was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania, on August 27, 1859, by a man named Edwin L. Drake. This well marked the beginning of today’s booming oil industry, paving the way for untold amounts of oil wells to be drilled all over the country.
The story behind how this first oil well was drilled is filled with fascinating details. The ups and downs of Drake’s discovery are sure to captivate any reader, and most don’t know about what took place. Below, we’ll tell you all about how skeptics thought Drake was a madman for his attempt and how Titusville made history.
Titusville, PA – The Birthplace of America’s Oil Wells
America’s first oil well was drilled just south of Titusville, Pennsylvania. This little town is in the aptly named Oil Creek Valley region, where oil consistently flowed in the streams along the river banks. Titusville is in Crawford County, and the original well location (there is a marker) is south in Venango County, but Oil Creek flows through both Crawford and Venango counties. The town’s convenient location played a significant part in setting it up to be the prime spot for the first oil well in the US.
Titusville’s oil well was drilled on August 27, 1859, after much struggle and toil by innovator Edwin L. Drake. Hired by Seneca Oil Company to drill for oil, Drake faced a plethora of setbacks for over five months, including unforeseen expenditures and logistical issues with the drilling itself.
In fact, Drake had so many problems getting started that in the eye of the public, the well went from a promising new venture to a disaster that they called “Drake’s Folly.” However, the man people had taken to calling “Crazy Drake” would be proven right in a short time as his oil well successfully produced the sought-after substance.
Drake faced so much pressure from others during the period prior to striking oil that nearly everyone lost faith in him, including his main driller, William Smith. However, despite the pessimism surrounding the venture, Drake pushed ahead and continued reinventing the wheel to try new drilling oil methods.
Finally, approximately six months after being hired for this project, Drake succeeded in striking oil with Smith’s help, establishing what is now known as the Drake Well.
The Drake Well was almost 70 feet deep and drilled using new methods invented by Drake himself. We’ll expand more on his inventions later, but for now, it’s worth noting that none of the standard techniques used by previous drillers worked, so Drake had to find unique ways to drill.
He wound up implementing an iron pipe in the process to keep the bore intact, allowing him to extract oil on a continuous basis. Titusville was his chosen drilling location at the request of Seneca Oil Company, likely because of the town’s proximity to Oil Creek.
Despite introducing America to the concept of oil drilling and becoming the first well to produce commercial amounts of oil, the Drake Well did not last and was ultimately unprofitable. The well produced around 25 barrels of oil every day in the beginning, but this quickly diminished to about 12 to 20 barrels. It only took a couple of years until, unfortunately, the Drake Well shut down in 1861.
The Drake Well may not have lasted long, but its legacy certainly hasn’t been forgotten. Pennsylvania decided to honor Drake and his impact by constructing the Drake Well Museum on the 240-acre site encompassing the land he used for the well.
The museum was designed to educate audiences about the creation of the first oil well, its inventor, and the subsequent boom of the nationwide oil industry. Visitors can see replicas of the Drake Well and other historical artifacts and even catch a glimpse of how the oil field machinery used to operate!
Keystone Answers Fun Fact: As Edwin L. Drake was coming under heavy fire from the public for all the obstacles he faced drilling the oil well, investors from Connecticut wanted to improve people’s perception of him so that their investment looked sounder. They would address any letters written to him with the title “Colonel” to make Drake look more official and enhance his reputation.
Who Drilled the First Oil Well in the United States?
Edwin L. Drake drilled the first oil well in the US, and he wasn’t even an oil driller originally! Prior to drilling, Drake was actually a railroad conductor – until Seneca Oil Company hired him to drill for oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Naturally, Drake didn’t want to miss out on this lucrative opportunity, so he embarked on a mission to successfully drill for oil per the company’s request.
From the offset, the previously used drilling methods Drake had heard about failed entirely, leading to five months of pain and ridicule from those around him. This period was so tense that the Seneca Oil Company actually dropped out a couple of months in.
Drake wouldn’t let these failures keep him down, though, and took out a $500 loan on his own to see the project through. Finally, right before he would’ve been flat broke, Drake’s project succeeded, and he struck oil.
Edwin Drake not only did what previous well-drillers couldn’t, but something they actually didn’t even think to do. People before him had happened upon small amounts of oil in their drilling endeavors, but it wasn’t on purpose. Instead, they were seeking other substances and saw the oil that appeared as a nuisance they wanted to get rid of.
Drake was the first to purposely and successfully drill oil. Today petroleum products are used to manufacture a multitude of essential products, from fuel for our vehicles to the clothes on our backs.
Unfortunately, Drake’s breakthrough did not lead him to become a wealthy man with a successful life to follow, as one may expect. Instead, he failed to patent his inventions and died with very little money after the oil business took off everywhere else, using his creation for profit and leaving him behind. His impact continues to resonate around the world, but he did not get to enjoy the benefits of that while he was alive.
How Did the First Oil Drill Work?
Drake couldn’t use just any drilling method to drill his oil well successfully; he had to go back to the drawing board and inject some creativity into the process. So, taking inspiration from salt miners, he hired William Smith for his salt-well drilling experience and adapted those methods to apply to oil drilling.
The key to Drake’s invention turned out to be in the driving of iron pipes down into the rock to protect the bore’s stability and extract the precious oil from within.
Slowly but surely, this method allowed Drake and Smith to deepen the well by a few feet each day until they eventually hit oil and made history. Drake did not establish a patent for this technique, however. Instead, his failure in patenting led to the copying of his technique across the country, sparking the oil business without him receiving any compensation.
Does Pennsylvania Still Produce Oil?
The state of Pennsylvania continues to produce oil to this day and in significant quantities. Roughly 14,000 to 20,000 barrels of crude oil are produced daily in the state, adding up to approximately 7.3 million barrels annually. Although this sounds like an extremely high number, Pennsylvania is actually ranked #17 in terms of oil production by US states, coming in right behind Illinois. Texas is ranked at the very top, eclipsing the runner-up state of North Dakota by over four times the amount of oil production.
Pennsylvania might not be the biggest oil producer in the states, but its natural gas reserves do lend it a key role in giving America energy. In the backdrop of the current energy crisis, political leaders have recently been looking to Pennsylvania to help mitigate the energy deficit we’re now experiencing. Without Edwin L. Drake, the state may not have been able to contribute to the country’s needs as effectively in this way.
Edwin L. Drake Paved the Way for America’s Oil
Pennsylvania is known for being the birthplace of many historic events, and it just so happens that you can add oil drilling to the list! The United States would not be where it is today in terms of oil production if not for the inventions of Edwin L. Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania, almost two hundred years ago. So although America’s oil industry sprawls all across the country now, we must not forget its roots in that little Pennsylvania town that got it where it is today.
