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Edwin Laurentine Drake (March 29, 1819 – November 9, 1880), also known as Colonel Drake, was an American businessman and the first American to successfully drill for oil. Early life [ edit ]
Drilled by Edwin Drake in 1859, along the banks of Oil Creek, it is the first commercial oil well in the United States. Drake Well was listed on National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. It was designated a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1979.
The site features a reconstruction of the oil well drilled by Colonel Edwin Drake and working oil field equipment. The museum includes indoor and outdoor exhibits and houses a library of over 2,500 titles, over 1,000 cubic feet (28 m 3) of manuscript material and a photographic collection with over 10,800 images.
In 1857, Bissell and Townsend hired Edwin Drake to travel to Titusville and drill for crude oil. Drake was an unemployed railroad conductor whose sole qualification for this job seems to have been a free railroad pass that allowed travel to Titusville. [2]
Crude oil production Natural oil seeps such as this in the McKittrick area of California were used by the Native Americans and later mined by settlers.. The history of the petroleum industry in the United States goes back to the early 19th century, although the indigenous peoples, like many ancient societies, have used petroleum seeps since prehistoric times; where found, these seeps signaled ...
The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co.'s agent, Edwin Drake, is sometimes credited with the "discovery" of oil, although the success of Drake's efforts is due in part to Bissell's business acumen. [29] [11] Bissell and his enterprises are also featured in the Pulitzer award book The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power.
In the late 1850s Seneca Oil Company (formerly the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company) sent its manager, Colonel Edwin L. Drake, to start drilling on a piece of leased land just south of Titusville, near what is now Oil Creek State Park. Drake hired a salt well driller, William A. Smith, in the summer of 1859.
On August 27, 1859, Edwin Drake dug a successful commercial oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania which is commonly credited as the first oil well dug specifically as a commercial well in the United States. Days after the Drake well came in, news reached the Grandin General Store in Tidioute approximately 20 miles away.