Burning Springs, West Virginia

Burning Springs is an unincorporated town in Wirt County, West Virginia, USA. It takes its name from the natural gas which bubbled up through the spring and would burn when lit.

In the early 19th century, wells were drilled at the springs to produce brine which was evaporated to produce salt. Some petroleum was produced along with the salt brine. By 1836, the salt wells were producing 50 to 100 barrels per year of oil that was sold as illuminating oil.^[1] The wells at Burning Springs produced and sold petroleum many years before the Drake oil well at Titusville, Pennsylvania. The first well at Burning Springs drilled to obtain oil rather than salt was begun in 1859, after the Drake well. The Burning Springs Complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.^[2]

The Ruble Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.^[2]

References

1. ^ Edgar Wesley Owen (1975) Trek of the Oil Finders, Tulsa, Okla.: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, p.10.
2. ^ ^{a b} "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html.