Tag: Oil City
Oil City is a city in Venango County, Pennsylvania that is known in the initial exploration and development of the petroleum industry. After the first oil wells were drilled nearby in the 1850s, Oil City became central in the petroleum industry while hosting headquarters for the Pennzoil, Quaker State, and Wolf’s Head motor oil companies. Tourism plays a prominent role in the region by promoting oil heritage sites, nature trails, and Victorian architecture. The population was 10,557 at the 2010 census.
In the early 17th century, the Seneca nation first settled in the region; by, the late 18th century Chief Cornplanter was given three tracts of land as a “gift” from the State of Pennsylvania. In 1818, local prospectors purchased the land and built a blast furnace, which closed in the early 1850s. As population in the area began to decline, Colonel Edwin L. Drake drilled the first commercially successful oil well on August 27, 1859, in nearby Titusville. A number of boomtowns came to…
