Oil Creek Railroad
Corry, Erie County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Opened in 1862, this railroad revolutionized the shipment of oil from the oil fields near Titusville to Corry, a hub for major rail lines. The 27-mile line rendered dangerous and wasteful waterway transport, as well as labor intensive horse-drawn wagons, obsolete. It also brought thousands of fortune seekers to the region. From its beginning it enjoyed an extraordinary volume of business and became one of the most profitable lines in the nation.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
When oil gushed from the ground near Titusville, the frantic problem was how to move it. Opened in 1862, the 27-mile Oil Creek Railroad linked the oil fields to the rail hub of Corry, replacing leaky barrels floated downstream and slow horse-drawn wagons. It hauled staggering volumes of crude, drew waves of fortune seekers to the region, and became one of the most profitable railroads in the country.
Why it matters
Born in the world's first oil boom, the line helped launch the American petroleum industry and showed how railroads and new energy sources fueled the nation's industrial rise.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Attractions
- Panama Rocks13.1 mi away
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Related events
- · Pennsylvania oil boom
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Climax Locomotives
Corry, PA · est. 1987
From 1888 to 1928 the Climax plant in Corry turned out more than a thousand geared steam locomotives—rugged, slow-moving engines designed to haul heavy loads up steep, rough, temporary track. Logging railroads across the United States and abroad relied on them to reach timber that conventional locomotives could never touch.
Byron D. Benson (1832-1888)
Titusville, PA · est. 2009
In the frantic decades after the Drake Well launched the oil age just up the road, the industry's greatest bottleneck was moving crude from Pennsylvania's fields to the sea. Byron D. Benson answered it in 1878 by founding the Tidewater Pipe Company and laying an ambitious long-distance pipeline that carried oil directly toward coastal refineries, breaking the era's tight grip on rail-based shipment. His larger six-inch line proved that petroleum could be pushed economically across great distances, a template the whole industry would follow.
Cambridge Springs
Cambridge Springs, PA · est. 2001
For a generation around the turn of the twentieth century, this small Crawford County town was one of Pennsylvania's premier mineral-spring resorts. It began in 1884 when Dr. John H. Gray struck spring water on his farm and started bottling and prescribing it, and within two decades some forty inns and grand hotels—among them the palatial Hotel Rider and the Riverside Inn—drew crowds who arrived by daily passenger train. As medicine moved away from 'taking the waters,' the resort era faded.
Densmore Tank Cars
Cherrytree Township, PA · est. 2004
In the frenzied years after Colonel Drake's 1859 strike, Pennsylvania's Oil Creek valley became the cradle of the world petroleum industry — but moving crude in leaky wooden barrels by wagon was slow and wasteful. In 1865 brothers James and Amos Densmore mounted two large wooden tanks on a flat railway car at nearby Miller Farm, each holding dozens of barrels, and shipped a successful test load to New York City. The design spread almost overnight, with hundreds in service within a year, and it set the template for the steel tank cars that still carry oil today.