Oil & Gas Museum News

After being one of the prime movers behind the establishment of the Oil & Gas Museum in Parkersburg, McKain is now putting together a historic park in Wirt County.

Oil and Gas Museum curator McKain said the Rathbone well near Burning Springs has been cleaned and refitted. In conjunction with the museum it should be open to the public as a "living-history park" by the end of summer.

Thanks to the donated efforts of Clay and Daryl Perkins of Perkins Oil & Gas, St. Marys, restoration on West Virginia's oldest producing well is nearly complete.

Several individuals and companies donated materials to the project, including Karl Heinrich, oil producer; Alvin Engelke, Creston Well; Jim Morris, Calhoun Realty; Roger Riddle, Parkersburg Tool Co.; Hildreth Oil Field Supply, Spencer; National Oil Well Supply, Parkersburg; Ken Miller Supply, Marietta; and McJunkin Supply, Charleston.

It was a challenge to refit the old well because the 19th century equipment seldom drilled straight down. The Perk ins' found a few bends in the hole as the drilled to 480-foot depth, but managed to install the new casing.

McKain said the next phase of the construction requires the drilling platform level to be raised above the floodplain and retrofitted with an 1880s-era pump jack.

Power for the pump jack will come from a natural gas engine from the same time period. An authentic-looking 19th century wooden cabin will be built on the Wirt County site. Gas coming from the well at 16 pounds pressure will be used to run the engine and heat the building, McKain said.

Once the park construction is complete, the Oil & Gas Museum will begin offering souvenir samples of crude oil from the Rathbone well for sale to the public. The park was made possible through the recent five-acre donation by George Grow.

When the well was first drilled in 1860, it produced a natural flow of more than one barrel every minute at the original depth of 139 feet. The Rathbone gusher prompted an oil boom in Burning Springs that peaked after the Civil War with an average of 50 oil companies incorporating each year from 1865 to 1867.

The town of Burning Springs changed its name in 1861 the Rathbone (after the first well), although by 1868 the boom slowed down and the town went back to its former name.

McKain is co-author of "Where It All Began: The Story of the People and Places Where the Oil and Gas Industry Began," published in 1994. The book focuses on the history of oil and gas production in West Virginia and southeastern Ohio.

West Virginia's Scenic Byways program recently awarded a grant to the Parkersburg Oil & Gas Museum to assist in the costs of establishing the 1880s-era drilling facility.

A parking lot on the land set aside for the Rathbone well historical site was completed this month with the help of the West Virginia Department of Highways. Hundreds of truckloads of dirt were used to fill a ravine and create level parking space for visitors.

In the near future McKain envisions a driving tour of several historical oil and gas locations in the Mid-Ohio Valley. He notes that West Virginia played an important role in the history of the oil and gas industry in America.

The July 29, 1899 edition of the Parkersburg Gazette reported that the "Old Rathbone Well" did 125 barrels of flow in two hours.

Oil and natural gas production in West Virginia continues to be vital to the nation's energy supply and employs nearly as many workers as the state's coal industry, McKain said.