Steven Karnes

Cherry Run Valley Steven Karnes

In 1855, the Cherry Run Valley was a quiet farming community in Venango County in northwestern Pennsylvania. The small town of Plummerville was the largest settlement in all of Cherry Run. Oil City, then know as Cornplanter, was little more then Hasson's Cornfield and Gristmill. Pithole was the home to several pioneers who had each acquired plots of four hundred acres from the Holland Land Company. However, on August 27-28, 1859, Col. Edwin L. Drake and Uncle Billy successfully struck oil near Titusvilleacross Oil Creek in north Venango County. As the news spread to the world, an onslaught of curious reporters, speculators, and adventurers filled the valley. Farms were bought and leased to investors and then often subleased before a well was even bored. Life was about to change dramatically for the people of the Cherry Run Valley. Images from private, local collections make Cherry Run Valley: Plumer, Pithole, and Oil City a true local treasure. From the earliest days to the first sighting of the new commodity to the migration down the length of Oil Creek, the Cherry Run Valley weathered it all. Plumer remains a beautiful village at the entrance to Oil Creek State Park, and Pithole went from buckwheat farm to boomtown to ghost town and now a popular state museum and park. This truly unique place and its history are captured in this long-awaited volume.