Pithole is a ghost town in Cornplanter Township, Venango County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, about 6 miles (9.7 km) from Oil Creek State Park and the Drake Well Museum, site of the world's first commercial oil well. Pithole's sudden growth and equally rapid decline, as well as its status as a "proving ground" of sorts for the burgeoning petroleum industry, made it one of the most famous of oil boomtowns. Oil strikes at nearby wells in January 1865 prompted a large influx of people to the area that would become Pithole, most of whom were land speculators. The town was laid out in May 1865, and by December was incorporated with an approximate population of 20,000. At its peak, Pithole had at least 54 hotels, 3 churches, the third largest post office in Pennsylvania, a newspaper, a theater, a railroad, the world's first pipeline and a red-light district "the likes of Dodge City's." By 1866, economic growth and oil production in Pithole had slowed. Oil strikes around other nearby communities and numerous fires drove residents away from Pithole and, by 1877, the borough was unincorporated. The site was cleared of overgrowth and was donated to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1961. Pithole was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1865:
With their supply trains destroyed by Union troops one day earlier, Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean House near the Appomattox Court House in Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Appomattox_Court_House
1917:
World War I: The Canadian Corps began the first wave of attacks at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in Vimy, France. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge
1948:
Fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing over 100. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre
1969:
The "Chicago Eight" pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Seven
1999:
President of Niger Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was shot to death by soldiers in Niamey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Bar%C3%A9_Ma%C3%AFnassara
2003:
Invasion of Iraq: Coalition forces captured Baghdad and the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square was toppled . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firdos_Square_statue_destruction
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
eddy (n): A current of air or water running back, or in an opposite direction to, the main current http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eddy
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when they thought good: they did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a mind to it, and were disposed for it. None did awake them, none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor to do any other thing; for so had Gargantua established it. In all their rule, and strictest tie of their order, there was but this one clause to be observed,
DO WHAT THOU WILT. Because men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. --François Rabelais http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Rabelais