No more beautiful and majestic scenery may be found east of the Rocky Mountains than that along the Allegheny river. A more inspiring or entrancing view is rarely found than from Clark's Summit, high above Oil City, where from the cliff five hundred feet high, the city with its broad streets, avenues and bridges crossing the river with the hills rising in the background spread out like a tapestry below.

At the mouth of Oil Creek is situated the hub of Venango county, the city of Oil City. The lands on the east side at the mouth of Oil Creek were owned by Cornplanter, chief of the Seneca tribe of the six nations. The land was given to him by the State of Pennsylvania as a gift for his help during the Revolutionary War on March 6, 1796. He sold his holdings to William Connellyand William Kinnear in 1818. Shortly after that the firm of William Kinnear & Co. erected an iron furnace, a foundry, a mill, constructed a steamboat landing and warehouses at the mouth of Oil Creek and gave the settlement the name of Oil Creek Furnace.

It was a quiet time for this little settlement until 1859 when the first well was drilled by Col. Drake in Titusville to the north. It changed the face of the nation and in 1861 would make Oil City the hub of the oil producing world. It changed the little village into a boom town and business center. Houses, stores, boarding houses and wharves

sprang up along the mouth of Oil Creek. Every incoming steam boat and stage brought men to the area, they arrived by horse and on foot in droves, seeking their fortune in this expanding boom town. At first the buildings were flimsily built, set on piles in the mud and built of rough cut unpainted lumber. In some places a little shanty served as an office to do business that ran into the millions in a single year.

In early 1862, a charter was granted with Oil City on the north side of the River and Venango City on the south side. On March 3, 1871 they were incorporated into one city. From that time on the growth would be substantial, with the little shacks giving way to the stately buildings of stone and brick that we see today in the down town area. Many of the stately Victorian homes built during this time are still standing today on both the north and south sides of the city.

The Oil City Library as we know it today also has a proud heritage. Established in 1904 through the efforts of a large number of people who sought to provide for the educational, cultural and recreational needs of the community. Approximately 5,000 volumes were donated from the private libraries of the women of the Belle Lettres Club and other residents and the new Oil City Library, initially known as the Carnegie Library of Oil City was open to serve the people.

Education was foremost in the minds of the Oil City residents in the early days of the city, as it is today. The "old" Oil City High School was an architectural marvel in its day, with an entrance on each of its floors it is still in the record books today.

No text would be complete without the mention of Oil City's many fine Church's. The beauty of the twin spires of Saint Joseph's Church as you enter the city with the hills and trees behind, or the other fine church's and places of worship through out the city. None of which would be here without the support of the residents of the city and surrounding community.

*LINK TO OIL CITY