South Penn Oil Company, Mallory Lot 6 Lease, Watsonville Field, Klondike, McKean County, PA

Significance: Pennsylvania is the birthplace of the petroleum industry, signified by the drilling of Edwin Drake's well near Titusville in 1859. Many widely used techniques of drilling and pumping oil were first developed here in the effort to recover the high-quality "Pennsylvania Grade" oil. One particularly important, and successful, technique perfected in Pennsylvania was "central power" pumping of numerous low-production wells to economically recover small amounts of oil. This method of production flourished between ca. 1890 and ca. 1950, and today there are only scattered remains of the once common pumping technique. The South Penn Oil Company, Mallory Lot 6 Lease is an excellent, rare, intact example of the mature, highly capitalized era of central powers.

Survey number: HAER PA-437

Building/structure dates: ca. 1939 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 1989 Subsequent Work

pumping machinery oil wells petroleum industry klondike penn oil south penn oil company mallory mallory lot lease watsonville field watsonville field mckean mckean county pennsylvania allegheny national forest paul boxley michael w caplinger justine christianson scott daley edwin drake eric elmer historic american engineering record kara hurst le mallory and company arturs lapins christopher h marston kevin mcclung john t nicely pennzoil southwestern pennsylvania heritage preservation commission west virginia university institute for the history of technology and industrial archaeology photo ultra high resolution high resolution united states history library of congress

1950

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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