PA Oil Well Celebrates 150th Birthday

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

August 17, 2011 | 11:30 AM

Happy birthday to America’s oldest continually-producing oil well, located in Venango County.
From the Titusville Herald:

Several dozen people gathered in Rouseville on Tuesday afternoon for a special anniversary celebration — McClintock Well No. 1, located off state Route 8, has been producing oil for 150 years.
And the well is the oldest continuously producing oil well in the world.
According to Dan Weaver, Drake Well Museum educator, Quaker State donated the well to Drake Well Museum in 1995. The well was designated as an American Treasure in 1999 by the National Park Service.
McClintock received grant funds that conserved the Reid gas engine and engine house, which are also located on the property.
Weaver said that John “Augie” Holtz has been pumping the well since that time.
Holtz said he was surprised by the turnout during the celebration.
“I pump [the well] every couple of months,” he said. “We get about 40 barrels of oil a year. [The oil] goes to the American Refining Group in Bradford.”
During the celebration, Holtz showed those in attendance that the well still produces gas, and lit a match near the base of the well’s pump jack and a flame appeared.