Oil & Gas Museum News

"I believe this is the oldest producing well anywhere." Dave McKain Oil & Gas Museum

After more than 140 years well still going strong.

Oil and Gas Museum brings well to life

by SCOT LONG
Staff Writer

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Click for larger view The Perkins Well service taps the Rathbone Well in preparation for an oil and gas industry memorial park sponsored by the Oil and Gas Museum in Parkersburg. Click for larger view Clay, left, and Daryl Perkins donate their time and equipment to clean and put back into production the Rathbone Well, near Burning Springs on Route 5 along the Little Kanawha River. West Virginia's [oldest] producing oil and gas well is coming back to life. Located near the town of Burning Springs in Wirt Co., it was originally drilled July 1860 and remained in production for 100 years. The well's revival is not for production purposes, however, said Dave McKain, volunteer director of the Oil and Gas Museum in Parkersburg. "It is simply a demonstration well as part of a memorial park," he said. Nearly $200,000 in federal and state grants and museum matching funds will pay for the project, which will include on-site antique drilling and pumping rigs. The five-acre memorial park, sponsored by the Oil and Gas Museum, will also feature oil and gas artifacts from a bygone era, steam engines, and a wooden oil tank. The land, the well, and the mineral rights were donated in 1997 by George Grow who has been in the oil industry for 50 years. "I believe that this is the oldest producing well anywhere," said McKain, adding that the well was originally drilled at a depth of 139 feet and produced 200 barrels of oil a day. Representing Perkins Well Service, St. Marys, Daryl and Clay Perkins donated the use of the company rig and their labor to clean the well and put it back into production. The memorial park, on Route 5 along the Little Kanawha River, is expected to open next month after the newly installed antique drilling equipment is functional. The memorial park is designed to preserve the history of the oil and gas industry of West Virginia and southeastern Ohio, said McKain. During the 19th century there were some important oil and gas equipment manufacturers on both sides of the Ohio River, and some of them are still in production today. "We plan on bottling the oil and selling samples with 'Oldest Producing Well' on the label," said McKain. The well is known as the Rathbone Well, named after the family that owned the property when the well was tapped in 1860. McKain believes that the Rathbone family earned a fortune from the oil boom, although it was probably more from selling land to speculators than from the oil and gas the family produced and sold. Burning Springs got its name because prior to the oil boom, several sites in the region oozed with natural gas and oil and sometimes caught on fire for weeks at a time, McKain said. There are numerous other areas in West Virginia with a similar geology, such as in the vicinity of the town of Petroleum. By the time the area was in full production shortly after the Civil War, there were ox-drawn carts and horse-drawn wagons hauling oil one direction and drilling equipment the other direction between Parkersburg and Burning Springs, McKain said. No railroad was ever built to accommodate the Burning Springs oil producing region, but locks and dams were installed on the Little Kanawha River.

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Click for larger view The Rathbone well was drilled in July 1860 at 139 feet and when put back into production will be the oldest producing, though not continuous producing, well in the world. You can call it the "discovery" well for the Burning Springs boom. The Grow family set this site aside after they bought the Rathbone property in the early 1900's, being designated the Rathbone site. They sold the lots around it, but saved the well site for historical purposes. As a matter of interest, we just bought back one of the sites, so we now have 100 feet along the river and road and nine acres across the road on the hillside, which was also part of the original oilfield, dating back to 1860-61. Plans are to get a cleanout rig in within the next couple of weeks and put it back into production. The well is located at N 38° 59' 29.8" W 81° 19' 10.9".