Drake Well
A site in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Drake Well is filed here for what the record attaches to it. 1859—the well that started the oil age. The archive files it under industry, dark history and local folklore. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is Drake Well haunted?
The record holds 1 claim — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed media reported. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
Drake Well is where the oil age started — the 1859 Titusville well where Edwin Drake struck oil at 69½ feet, the first commercial oil well in America that launched the petroleum industry. The investors' letter telling him to stop arrived after he found the oil.
The well was the improvisation — the salt-well drilling technique applied to oil, the iron pipe Drake drove to bedrock to keep the water out, the 'Crazy Drake' who spent the New Haven money until Uncle Billy Smith brought the drill. The letter recalling him was in the mail when the well came in.
The site is still there — the reconstructed derrick, the museum at the National Historic Landmark, the oil creek where it happened. The file keeps the well: the 1859 strike, the 69½ feet, and the hole that made the modern world.
Drake Well is the archive's oil file — the first commercial well, the industry's birthplace, and the derrick that started it.
Why this file matters
Drake Well is the archive's oil file — the first well, the 1859 strike, and the site that launched petroleum.
A well that started an industry keeps its derrick — the file's suggestion being that Drake Well's hold is the strike: the 69½ feet, the iron pipe, and the hole that's the oil age's origin.
The Drake Well is a 69.5-foot-deep (21.2 m) oil well in Cherrytree Township, Pennsylvania, the success of which sparked the first oil boom in the United States. The well is the centerpiece of the Drake Well Museum located 3 miles (5 km) south of Titusville. 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 well was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in 2009, on the sesquicentennial of the strike. The Drake Well is often ref
Drake WellThe record of claims
The strike is documented; the lore is the boom’s memory. The site in Titusville, Pennsylvania gives the account a documented setting: real place, real history, unresolved reports. Coverage gave the claim its audience; proof remains another matter. The report is preserved in sources like 'Drake Well'. As folklore it's unkillable: the story is too good, and the place too fitting, to let go.
Documented history
Drake’s August 27, 1859 strike is documented. Drake Well's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'Drake Well'. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.
Verified historyWikipedia
Sources on file
- 01Drake WellWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
PA batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.