Oil Creek State Park is home to several “tableaus,” or movie set-like historical displays.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
What’s the difference between trash and history?
In this case, a little more than 150 years.
More than a century and a half ago, the Oil Creek valley – today what is Oil Creek State Park – was a muddy, smoky, polluted cesspool, where the only thing dirtier and nastier than the air and water was some of the people living there.
Despite all that, people couldn’t stay away.
Money was the reason.
When Col. Edwin Drake sunk the world’s first commercial oil well in the valley in 1859, he set off a mad rush comparable to the California gold rush of a decade earlier. People – from wealthy industrialists to rough-hewn drillers to criminals – moved in.
Old oil barrels, still stained and smelling of petroleum, can be found scattered throughout the woods of Oil Creek State Park.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
One of the towns that sprung up, Petroleum Centre, was soon thereafter reputed to be the wildest, wickedest town east of the Mississippi.
The muggings, murders, brothels and more bore testimony to that.
Meanwhile, oil fouled Oil Creek, deep, sucking mud filled the streets of towns that routinely caught fire and still the money spouted from the ground.
Some farmers with land to lease were soon making as much as $9,000 a day in 1871 dollars. That’s comparable to about $130,000 a day now.
And then?
The boom largely went bust. While there are a few gas wells still active in the park, the peak of all that activity has been gone for more than a century.
The remnants of it remain, however.
Hike through Oil Creek State Park now and you can find authentic old barrels – still stained and smelling of oil – scattered along the trails. Stone and concrete foundations are still visible, too. Then there are all of the old pipelines, pieces of metal equipment and even crumbling tin buildings.
In other places, that might seem like so much trash.
At Oil Creek, it’s all fascinating to see.
There are several ways to explore the park.
It’s home to a 9.7-mile bike trail that runs from one end of the park to the other. Paved, it follows Oil Creek itself, offering more than just lovely views. There are plenty of trailside platforms offering information on the area’s past.
Oil Creek State Park’s 9.7-mile bike trail offers hikers and bikers a chance to explore the park.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
It gets stocked with trout in spring and again in fall, at least in one section, too, and smallmouth bass are plentiful.
Want to do something really cool?
You can bike the trail one way, then ride, bike and all, on the Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad back the other. You can do the same with a canoe or kayak when there’s water enough, too.
The park is also home to the 36-mile Gerard Hiking Trail. It has two campsites along the way for backpackers; there are Adirondack shelters as well as places for putting tents.
The shelter areas are pretty far apart, so it’s tough to do the entire trail in one weekend. But there are plenty of places to get on and off the trail, so you can vary the length of your trip to suit your needs.
There are opportunities for day hikes, too. The Petroleum Centre walking tour, which starts at the train station and visitor center, is less than a half mile, for example. It offers lots in the way of historical information, though.
So the question is not really whether to explore Oil Creek. It’s how to do it.
Do yourself a favor – pick one and go.
