A Story Outline of Evolution 



the advancement of civilization and the development of 

 Industry than any other has ever done. 



The discovery of crude oil or petroleum, like so many 

 other useful discoveries that have aided so greatly in the 

 progress of our civilization, was accidental. Oil seepages 

 or springs had been known since early Bible days. In west- 

 ern Pennsylvania oil springs had been discovered by the 

 early French explorers. The oil from these springs had 

 been used by the Seneca Indians before the Revolutionary 

 War. After the establishment of the United States Gov- 

 ernment, great hordes of people from the Eastern States 

 began their western march seeking new homes in the more 

 fertile regions of the unsettled West. Their only means 

 of travel was in covered wagons and on flat boats that 

 floated down the rivers. They carried all their earthly pos- 

 sessions with them. The forests abounded with game and 

 the rivers with fish and the virgin soil yielded abundant 

 crops, but there was one necessity that they did not have 

 and that was salt. Salt springs were extremely scarce and 

 these would not supply the demand for salt. Shafts that 

 were dug by hand developed the fact that the salt water that 

 was supplying the salt springs was coming through crevices 

 in the sold rock. This led to the devising of tools and to 

 the drilling into the rock seeking salt water from which salt 

 could be made. It was through this process that crude oil 

 and natural gas were discovered in their secret hiding places. 



The first oil well that was drilled for the express pur- 

 pose of searching for oil was completed in 1859 ^^ western 

 Pennsylvania at a depth of fifty-nine and one-half feet. It 

 was not then and neither is it now given to man to know 



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