Oil Field Park In Sepia

Less than ten miles from my home is The Rathbone Well, an 1880's era drilling facility. It has been completely cleaned and refitted and now serves as a "living history park". The Rathbone Well is West Virginia's oldest producing oil well. When the well was first drilled in 1860, it produced a natural flow of more than one barrel every minute at the original depth of 139 feet. The Rathbone gusher prompted an oil boom that peaked after the Civil War with an average of 50 oil companies incorporating each year from 1865 to 1867. In 1863 Confederate General Jones and his men set fire to the oil stored in tanks, barrels, and boats destroying in a day an estimated 300,000 barrels of oil. In the above image the well is located by the river beneath the replica of the wooden oil well derrick. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
An old wooden barrel with metal hoops. This is the type of barrell the oil would have been stored in. I saw many throughout the community. This one sits on private property, hence the posted sign.
I can't tell you what this equipment was used for. It was sitting in the middle of the woods long discarded from its duties.

This is equipment on the grounds of the museum.
A large wooden wheel.

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