Pithole city or Pithole is an infamous ghost town in Cornplanter Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania. This infamous city of Pennsylvania is known as the oil bottom town. This place's sudden peak and equally rapid doom made this place a "proving ground". Within overnight when oil wells were found in the nearby areas this place became a popular town of Pennsylvania in 1865. But within 1961 this overgrown town changed into an isolated ghost town. Let's get to know more about this infamous Pithole city.

History of Pithole City

The Pithole city was derived from its surroundings pothole creek, which streams through nearer Venango County to the Allegheny River. The earliest inhabitant of this old town was Series, which was forcefully moved out by the Iroquois in 1653. Later the Iroquois moved to different towns of Pennsylvania by 1833. Edwin Drake, an American businessman found the first oil well along with oil creek in 1859 at Titusville in Crawford County. By the time moreover, 500 oil wells were built along the oil creek within 16 miles. In its peak times, Pithole city consisted of many hotels and homes for tourists and visitors. But investors didn't get the same attention to Pithole as they didn't want to risk their money. Later in the year 1864, Isaiah Frazier leased Pithole land along with more lands and found an oil well in April 1864. This was named after Isaiah Frazier and called Frazier well or the United States well. But it was well-struck in 1865.

Rise of Pithole city

After the Frazier well strike, two more wells struck in the same year.  With the strike of these wells, the newly established Pithole city also gets its population. Within a few months, the population jumped from 2000 to 20000 by the Christmas of the year 1865. The newly built Pithole city had more than 54 hotels, three churches, the third-largest post office, the world's first pipeline, and a red-light district. 

Doomed of Pithole city

In 1866 a chain of banks owned by Charles Vernon Culver collapsed, this hugely affected the oil region and investors turned their back at Pithole.In the same year, a fire caught a house and by this fire, most of the town was burned down. To ashes and destroying 27 wells.In 1867 when many oil wells were found in the neighborhood, people started to move there and abandoned this place forever.

Recent Status of Pithole City

Pithole City today is operated by The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. This place is used as a visitor center and it is part of Drake Well Museum. The Pithole visitor center consists of several exhibits, a scale model of the city, an oil-transport wagon, and a small informational theater. Many people who want to look for this kind of old historical town come to visit here and sense the history of this old town