The Titusville Gusher Part 1 (Ep1)

Titusville, Pennsylvania was where the first oil well was drilled in 1859. That started an economic boom that birthed a new industry and created several oil boom towns, some of which still exist today like Titusville and Oil City, and some of which became ghost towns and disappeared like Pithole and Petroleum Center. This episode focuses on that first discovery of oil by Edwin Drake, the resulting economic boom, and the rise of the Standard Oil Company, helmed by John D. Rockefeller. The episode tracks how Standard Oil became overwhelmingly dominant in oil refining, transportation and marketing. This is the first of a three-part series on the Oil Regions of Northwest Pennsylvania.