Drake Well Museum
Established | 1934 |
---|---|
Location | 202 Museum Lane, Titusville, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Coordinates | 41°36′40.4″N 79°39′26.7″W / 41.611222°N 79.657417°W |
Type | Industry museum |
Director | Melissa Mann[1] |
Curator | Susan Beates |
Website | drakewell |
The Drake Well Museum and Park is a
A historic site, the museum is located in Cherrytree Township, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Titusville on Drake Well Road, situated between Pennsylvania Routes 8 and 27. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
Facilities and features
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 m3) of manuscript material and a photographic collection with over 10,800 images. Programs include the Fall Gas-Up engine show, a spring Heritage Lecture Series, Heritage School Tours, and the Nitroglycerine Show. Visitor services include orientation film, guided tours, a museum store and more.
Nearby attractions are Oil Creek State Park and the Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad.
The State of Pennsylvania has spent US $8 million for renovation of the museum. The new permanent exhibit "There's a Drop of Oil and Gas in Your Life Everyday" features over 530 artifacts, many historic images and stories about the birth and growth of the oil and gas industries. Interactive exhibits include a discussion between John D. Rockefeller and Ida Tarbell, author of The History of Standard Oil.
Administration
Drake Well Museum and Park is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) and the Friends of Drake Well, Inc.[2][3] It was formerly a Pennsylvania state park, but was transferred to the PHMC.[4]
Exhibits
- The Central Power Lease was used to pump several wells at the same time with one engine. A 20 horsepower (15 kW), Olin hit-and-miss engine turns an eccentric gear connected to many rod lines. The rod lines could be routed over or under roads to reach the wells.[5] A "barker" on the engine exhaust pipe gives it a distinctive sound that would allow the operators of the engine to tell it was still running, from a distance. Powered by natural gas, the engine is in operation daily from May to October.
- Built in 1945, the Drake Well replica is a "board-for-board" reconstruction of the engine house and derrick as it looked in the 1860s.[6] The original building was destroyed by fire in October 1859 and was replaced a month later. The museum used photographs taken by John A. Mather to exactly duplicate the structure. A working, reproduction steam engine was acquired in 1986. The engine pumps recirculated petroleum from the well from May to October. The petroleum used at Drake Well is originally from McClintock Well #1 near Rouseville, the oldest oil well still in operation.[7]
- The Silver Run Pump Station was built in 1894 by the pipelines for Standard Oil. The station remained in operation in Franklin until 1968 and was donated to the museum by Pennzoil in 1981.[8]
- The Visitor Center contains an orientation film, the new permanent exhibit "There's a Drop of Oil and Gas in Your Life Everyday" and a research library. The center also has the The new exhibit also features many more artifacts including John Wilkes Booth's cane.
History
Development of oil drilling
Oil was known to exist in the Oil Creek Valley of northwestern Pennsylvania, but there was no practical way to extract it. Its main use to that time had been as a medicine for animals, humans and the early development of kerosene. In the late 1850s
Development of transportation
Other oil-related businesses quickly were built in the area. Eight refineries were built between 1862 and 1868 in the Titusville area alone. Drilling tools were needed and several iron works were built. Titusville grew from 250 residents to 10,000 almost overnight and in 1866 it incorporated as a city. The first oil millionaire, a resident of Titusville, was Jonathan Watson who owned the land where Drake's well was drilled. The same land is now part of Oil Creek State Park and the Drake Well Museum.
Fires
Fire was always a concern around oil and one of the worst fires was on June 11, 1880. What came to be known as "Black Friday" happened when almost 300,000 barrels (48,000 m3) of oil burned after an oil tank was hit by
See also
- List of petroleum museums
- Oil Region
References
- ^ "Melissa Mann Appointed Site Administrator at Drake Well Museum and Park". Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. 21 March 2013. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
- ^ "Drake Well". Friends of Drake Well, Inc. and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
- ^ "Pennsylvania Trail of History". Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Archived from the original on 2007-10-15. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
- ISBN 0-89271-056-X.
- ^ Sherman 2002, p. 42.
- ^ Sherman 2002, p. 24.
- ^ Sherman 2002, p. 26.
- ^ Sherman 2002, p. 44.
- ^ Sherman 2002, p. 33.
- ^ Merritt, Ashley (May 26, 2012). "Pumper that witnessed city history part of museum display". The Titusville Herald. Retrieved June 26, 2012.
- ^ Drake Well Museum
Sources
- Sherman, John (2002). Drake Well Museum and Park. Pennsylvania Trail of History Guide. ISBN 0-8117-2960-5.