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West Virginia's KEY to The Present(Continued from Page 1-B)ing Springs Field, pioneer oil driller?; ofended it may have reached a peak of 1880’s rrmwed north. Discoveries ineastern Wood County and western Ritchie County led to the founding of the town of Volcano in Wood County and the concentration of drilling in the Volcano oil field. By 1873 the Volcano oil field had become the center of oil production in the State. The first pipeline in West Virg;nia was laid from this field to Parkersburg in 1879. The same year a fire of unknown origin destroyed mo* of the town of Volcano. This disaster, coupled w-ith generally declining prices for oil and *he depression of the Seventies virtually ended the prominence of West Virg.nia as an oil-producing State.Among the van sh.ng remnan's of th.s era which should be preserved, the Rathbon* we!! r mk.' first. By reconditioning the well our S~ate could have the oldest producing oil well .n the world. A museum at or near the well could preserve and display the records and equipment of the early oil period.as many as 12,000. The town went up as if by magic. Its several ho'els included the Chicago House, said to be the finest in western Virginia.Fortunes were made and lost In aday.The Burning Springs bubble burst in May 1883 when a Confederate force of several thousand men led by Gen. William Jones raided the town and its oil installations. The raiders burned a 11 tanks, derricks, equipment and, as a final touch, set fire to a large number of oil filled barges on the Little Kanawha River and pushed them out into the stream. Over 150,000 barrels of oil were destroyed as well as most of the town of Burning Springs. It was described as the biggest fire ever kindled in this State.For all practical purposes, this was the end of the Burning Springs field and of the town itself.Following the successes in the Burn-The Grave Creek Mound, the Buffalo Indian Village, Blennerhassett Island, the Point Pleasant Complex and the remnants of the early petroleum industry are some of the historical sites selected by the Antiquities Commission for preservation and development. With the help of local groups and societies many more are being considered.One hundred years from now the larger river valleys of this State will be built over virtually solid with urban and industrial development. We must decide now what is of value and what isworth preserving. Our descendants w not thank us if we leave them nothing bu’ a sea of factor.'- and subdiv: .or.It is our duty as citizens of th s Sta’e and of the world s 1* id.ng nation to preserve 'he past and to know our history.“Without a knowledge of hi-tory” said our late President John F. Kennedy, “an American stand imrerain and defenseless before rhe wor d, know neither where he has corr.e from nor where he is going ’’
Newspaper Details
Sunday Dominion-Post
Morgantown, West Virginia, US
Sun, Sep 10, 1967
Page 28
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
VA, USA 19 Jun 2019
Other Publications Near Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown Dominion Post
Morgantown Morning Reporter
The Morgantown Post and The Dominion-News
Morgantown Dominion News and Morgantown Post
Morgantown Dominion News
