Historedia
Episode 1 of 4

Oil Rush Impact

When
1859-1861
Where
Oil Creek valley
Part of
Edwin Drake drills the first US oil well at Titusville

The success of the Drake Well sparked the first oil boom, causing rapid expansion in Titusville and market volatility.

Titusville and other towns on Oil Creek expanded rapidly as wells and refineries shot up. Domestic crude output swelled from 2,000 barrels in 1859 to 4,000,000 in 1869. The rush created violent market swings, with prices dropping from $10 to 10 cents per barrel by 1861.

Sources

  1. Pennsylvania oil rush Wikipedia, revision of 2026-04-21
  2. Edwin Drake Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-27
  3. Drake Well Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-04

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.