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Smith decided to check on the well. He looked into the top of the
casing and found the hole full of oil. Overnight, oil from a formation
some 69½ feet (21.2 metres) below the surface had flowed into the
well casing and filled it to the top. The well's being full of oil signaled
success. No one knows for sure how much oil it produced, but it was
probably around 800 to 1,200 gallons (about 3,000 to 4,800 litres) per
day, which far outstripped the gallon or two that could be collected off
the ground. Regardless of how much oil the well actually produced, it
demonstrated that a drilled well could yield ample amounts of oil.
As far as we know, Drake's was the first well in the United
States drilled for the sole purpose of finding and producing oil. News
of the accomplishment spread rapidly and, because a ready market
existed for refined rock oil, dozens of new rigs sprang up in the area to
take advantage of the demand for it. Saltwater drillers formerly
reluctant to drill oilwells changed their bias, and the first oil boom in
the U.S. was underway. Refined rock oil soon became the primary
lamp oil. And, as machines became more common, refined rock oil
became a much sought after lubricant. Colonel Drake's well in
Titusville marked the beginning of the petroleum era in the United
States.

CALIFORNIA, LATE 1800s
Reports of drilling for oil in Pennsylvania soon reached all
parts of the U.S., Canada, and abroad. Interest in oilwell drilling was
particularly high in California, where the population was rapidly
growing. After prospectors found gold at Sutter's Mill in 1849,
immigrants flooded into California. Unlike the northeastern U.S.,
which had plenty of coal for heating and for firing boilers and other
machinery, California had none. Luckily, many oil and gas seeps,
similar to those in Pennsylvania, occurred in California. Therefore, as
word of Drake's successful drilling venture spread, enterprising
Californians applied the technology to their fields. The first successful

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