This Week in Petroleum History, January 5 – 11

by | Jan 5, 2026 | This Week in Petroleum History

January 7, 1864 – Oilfield Discovery at Pithole Creek –

The once-famous Pithole Creek oilfield discovered in Pennsylvania by a well drilled by the United States Petroleum Company — reportedly located by using a witch-hazel dowser. The discovery well, which initially produced 250 barrels of oil a day, made headlines and created the boomtown Pithole five years after the first U.S. oil well at nearby Titusville. (more…)

Michigan’s Golden Gulch of Oil

by | Jan 2, 2026 | Petroleum Pioneers

It took awhile, but the 1957 well drilled on Mrs. Houseknecht’s dairy farm found a giant oilfield.

 

An exploratory well in southern Michigan had been drilled on and off for almost two years before revealing the state’s only giant oilfield in January 1957. The Michigan oil discovery at “Rattlesnake Gulch” on the dairy farm of Ferne Houseknecht tapped a petroleum-rich basin extending dozens of miles.

The story of the discovery of Michigan’s only giant oilfield is the stuff of dreams, according to Michigan historian and author Jack R. Westbrook. The state’s first oilfield, the Saginaw field, was found in 1925, and another field was discovered three years later, but there would be decades of “dry holes” before Mrs. Houseknecht convinced her uncle to finish drilling the well on her farm. (more…)

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