Industry
McClintock Well #1 is a shallow stripper well, one of many independently owned wells that produce only a few barrels daily but together account for around 30% of American oil. In the early 1800s, Hamilton McClintock sold oil gathered from a spring in Oil Creek on his farm to neighboring settlers. Drilled in 1861 with leg power in a wood-cribbed, 14-inch-deep pit formerly used by Seneca Indians to gather medicinal oil, the well has traditionally produced more salt brine than crude oil. In 1862 it produced 175 barrels a day, but output had slowed to 85 by 1869. By 1920 it was down to half a barrel a day, when oil sold for $6.10 a barrel, and a year later the well was shot at a depth of 500 feet in the Third Venango Sand to increase production. Today it averages about 50 barrels annually for the Drake Well Museum.
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