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Submitted by Richard Palmer

Bolivar Breeze, July 12, 1905

PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD - FIRST OIL REGION RAILROAD.

   It Was Built 40 Years Ago. A “Then and Now” Picture.

     The first railroad in the oil country was the Oil Creek road from Corry “down the creek.” It eventually reached Oil City and is now a part of the great Pennsylvania system, says the Bradford Era. A ride on the road, after the wayfarer has passed Titusville, reveals a panorama of extinct oil centers and they present picturesque effects. The former towns along the valley have nearly all disappeared and in many ways time has worked changes.     The only feature of the historic region which does not change is the crookedness of the creek. It runs in and out, from side to side of the devious valley if it were trying to delay itself en route and not reach Oil City too suddenly. The original oil region railroad follows a similar course. If the passenger is at all observant he can get into its curves easily, as they are continuous and interesting.

     Along the way a few time-worn, weather-beaten pumping rigs continue to draw Pennsylvania oil from the depths and here and there a one building stands where in days agone there were clusters of structures. Former important stopping places are now mere studies in still life, painted white wit snow, with a desolate rustic scene on a bleak hillside, for a background. The stopping places are not even semicolons.

The whistle of the locomotive does not break the stillness because there are no persons to get off or on the cars at those points. And 40 years are quite numerous when you stop to think about them.