Pithole City is now a ghost town situated in Cornplanter Township, Venango County in Pennsylvania. Pithole which is located a few miles from Drake well Museum and Creek State Park was among the well-known oil boomtowns in Pennsylvania. Pithole was made an official town in November 1865 with a population of 20,000. 

Story of Pithole City 

Oil Creek which was located near Pithole is where the first oil well was drilled with success. It was along the banks of the oil creek and the drilling was done by Edwin Drake. After the success, it induced the development of 500 wells built along the Oil creek that was along a 26 km part from Titusville to the mouth of the creek at the Allegheny River in Oil City. Pithole Creek at its early stages of existence was disregarded as investors saw it as a risky investment. In 1865, the Frazier well struck oil which was followed by another strike of The Twin Wells. 

The two lucky events at the two wells increased interest towards the town increasing its population and investors. The town was divided into 500 lots and by July the area’s population was more than 1900. Pithole was made part of the Borough in November of 1865. The town had 54 hotels, three churches, a railroad, and a post office that was said to be the third-largest in Pennsylvania.

Decline of Pithole 

In March 1866, the major financiers of a chain of Banks, owned by Charles Vernon Culver, collapsed. This led to financial turbulence in the oil region leading to most investors withdrawing from the town. There were fires in February and August of 1866 that brought down some buildings to ashes. In December 1866, the population had dropped to 2000. The Chase house and Marcus Theater were sold in August 1868 while the newspaper was relocated to the petroleum Center in July of 1868. By 1870 the census noted a population of 237. The City Borough was incorporated in August 1877 and the remains of the city were sold in 1879 back to Venango County.

What remains of Pithole? 

The site was bought by James B. Stevenson in 1957. He cleared the vegetation from the site and later donated it to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum commission where he had served as chairman from 1962 to 1971. Pithole was registered as a historic place in 1973 and is under the management of the Pennsylvania Historic Museum. Pithole is open to the general public for visitations and has several historic exhibits like an old oil transport wagon that was stuck in mud in its operational days to date. It is advised to always be cautious when visiting the town.