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| Category: History:United States |
(requires Adobe Reader)
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| About the Book | |
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Then, on August 27, 1859, a single well bored to a depth of 69 ½ 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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| About the Author | |
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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. |