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an intrigueing story of Pennsylvania

Pithole City on Pithole Creek where it joins the Allegheny River, was a boom town beginning with the discovery of oil there in 1865. Within a year or two there was so much business going on there that the incoming and outgoing mail at the Post Office was third in volume only to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the state. "Fortune seekers from all parts of America and Europe were attracted. On every train they came rushing to the land of derricks."
The population grew to 12,000 to 15,000 inhabitants. Alas, it was not to last. Most oil claims petered out. The Oil City & Pithole Branch Railroad banked the fires in its locomotives, and the Reno, Oil Creek & Pithole Railroad was never completed beyond the grading and tie-laying process. No one checked in anymore at the four-story hotel in the center of town. By 1870 Pithole City was no more, and it was not even mentioned in the federal census of that year. Today the site may furnish interesting opportunities for electronic treasure detection.
"If I had a nickel for every nickel I ever had, I'd have all my nickels back".

Comments

  • holeinone1972holeinone1972 Posts: 5,348 ✭✭✭
    My wife giggled about this post as she grew up near Pithole. She has recanted the many (too many) family trips there.

    I do not own a metal detector but I enjoy this forum, and I am getting really close to buying one.

    Rob
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