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STATE HISTORICAL MARKERS
~ VENANGO COUNTY ~

OLDEST PRODUCING OIL WELL - Erected August 5, 1958 and located on PA 8 just south of Rouseville.

McClintock No. 1 Oil Well has produced continuously since August, 1861. Drilled only two years after the famous Drake Well, it is located 240 yards away, across the railroad.

Since the early 1800s, Hamilton McClintock had been trapping oil from a seep on his property. According to historian Paul Giddens (1938), who states that twenty to thirty barrels could be caught in a season, this was the largest petroleum operation on Oil Creek prior to Drake's well. John Bowers and his brother, Joe Bowers, pumped this well, located along Oil Creek, and other wells on the Hamilton McClintock tract when they were first drilled in 1861. They continued this until the latter part of the 1890s and after that a son of John Bowers pumped them until 1919. The property was purchased from the original owners by the Brundred Oil Corporation whose workers continued to pump the wells. In September, 1952, Quaker State Oil Refining Corporation of Oil City, PA, purchased McClintock No. 1 Oil Well and property of the Hamilton McClintock tract. Quaker State would pump it a couple times a year to hold the distinction of being the oldest well in the world in continuous production. After Quaker State moved its headquarters to Dallas, Texas, the well was turned over to Drake Well Museum of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Donated by Penny Haylett Minnick
pictures Penny Haylett Minnick