Samuel Kier didn’t intend to find oil when he was drilling for salt in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, in the 1840s. The New York Times says that Kier ended up experimenting with it and made an elixir named Seneca Oil as well as a proto-Vaseline.

By the 1850s, oil prospectors were all over western Pennsylvania, and in 1859, a 69-foot deep mechanical oil well — the first one ever — was drilled in Titusville. The newspaper states that a couple years later, other drillers drove the price down.

Today’s oil boom in southwestern Pennsylvania can be compared to the boom over 150 years ago. Horizontal drilling and fracking have changed the face of the industry. However, Pennsylvania’s oil industry of today is considered a “smaller version of the past,” according to Philip Scranton, professor of history emeritus at Rutgers.

Via: The New York Times > Oil Makes a Comeback in Pennsylvania