Drake's Pa. oil well idea changed world in 1859

TITUSVILLE, Pa.

The presence of oil around Titusville, then a lumber town of several hundred people, had long been known. Native Americans used it for medicinal purposes, and by the mid-19th century, it was being refined into kerosene for lamp oil.

But extracting it proved vexing. Early efforts involved digging trenches along Oil Creek or collecting it from seeps in the ground.