The Speechley Gas Pool Well

In eighteen eighty-five, driller Samuel Speechley struck a gas deposit large enough to supply all of Oil City and its surrounding communities. The discovery was significant not just for the fuel it provided but for what it revealed underground. Geologists tracing the formation identified a deep gas-bearing sandstone belt running through much of Pennsylvania and into West Virginia, and they named it the Speechley Sand in his honor.

That single geological name became a permanent fixture on drilling maps for generations. The well itself is said to have kept producing under a succession of owners for many decades after that first strike.