Overview

"Until the fall season of 1859, naturally occurring seeps of crude oil in rural Northwestern Pennsylvania were considered a local oddity. The locals who lived near the seeps would often skim off the oil that collected on the surface of ponds and streams. The skimmed oil was used as a cure-all medicine, as a fuel for torches, or as a crude lubricant for neighborhood sawmill and gristmill machinery. Crude oil in Pennsylvania was seemingly destined to remain a local oddity that added a few supplemental dollars to the income of the region's farmers. Then, on August 27, 1859, a single well bored to a depth of 69 1/2 feet fostered a new American industry in the sleepy backwoods region of northwestern Pennsylvania. By the end of 1860, thousands of barrels of the suddenly valuable ""local oddity"" had been extracted from a creek valley south of a hamlet called Titusville. Thus began Pennsylvania's first oil boom that many called, ""Oildorado."" From the riches of Oildorado sprang an unlikely transport route: a 25-mile shortline railroad called the Union and Titusville-nicknamed ""the Pigtail"" for its many twists and turns. Started in 1865 and completed in 1871 at a cost of $700,000 ($15,350,578 in today's money), it took a host of investors, a Civil War hero, and an infamous Robber Baron to build the rail line to export Pennsylvania's petroleum and related products from Northwestern Pennsylvania's ""Oil Regions"" to mainline railways."

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9781958878187

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Mr. Wiggers is a cum laude graduate of Edinboro University of Edinboro, Pennsylvania. Oil on the Pigtail is his second historical work.

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