In early 1865, oil was struck at the base of a wooded hillside in Western Pennsylvania. Within nine months the woods had been replaced by a small city of 15,000 fortune-seekers. It was named Pithole after nearby Pithole Creek, which was named after a nearby stinking crack in the ground that was generally assumed to be a portal to hell.
That pithole is still here, although it's off-limits on private property. Pithole the city, however, has vanished. The price of oil dropped to $4.50 a barrel, the hoped-for underground ocean of oil turned out to be more like a puddle, the fortune-seekers left, and the buildings were burned down or broken up for scrap. Trees once again cover the hillside.
A visitors' center and small museum has been built at the top of the hill, and volunteers "mow the streets" on the hillside so that tourists can stroll where the city once was. The center is usually open only on weekends during the summer, partly because the roads out here are treacherous in winter, partly because of a lack of funds. Director Barbara Zolli said that she'd consider selling t-shirts that read "Citizen of Pithole" or "Pithole USA" in the gift shop, which we think would bring in some money.
Barbara told us that one of Pithole's early investors was John Wilkes Booth, who owned a share in the Dramatic Well -- most of the early wells had names -- "Then he sold out and went off to assassinate Lincoln." The nearby Drake Well Museum has Booth's cane and a $5 bill that he used to pay his room rent, but they're not currently on display, and they can't be exhibited here because this place doesn't have climate control.
