Near the mouth of Burning Springs Run stood the first well in West Virginia drilled solely for petroleum. The Rathbones and others from Parkersburg began drilling it in 1859 with a spring pole and completed it in May 1860. It produced at the rate of 100 barrels per day. In 1863, General Jones, commanding Confederate forces, set fire to oil stored in tanks, barrels, and boats, destroying an estimated 300,000 barrels of oil in a single day.