Photo by Jerry Sowden - Matt Bartley, a junior at A-C Valley High School, shows Nancy Marano, Emlenton borough administrator, the working of the old pump house that was moved to refurbish the borough-owned Crawford Well No.3 oil well.

EMLENTON - Emlenton Borough, a major player in the early days of the petroleum industry, is back in the oil-producing business.

"We have our oil well pumping again," said Nancy Marano, the borough administrator and the town's chief oil well restoration promoter. "It is just so neat to be able to preserve this well as a historical landmark and also make a few dollars."

Crawford Well No. 3 is 891 feet deep and was drilled in 1867 by Eben and Sam Crawford, brothers who tried their hands in the 1849 California gold rush before returning home to eventually capitalize on the oil boom.

For many years, Crawford No. 3 chugged away in a multi-well oilfield located on a family-owned property just at the outskirts of Emlenton. The Crawfords developed that site to include mineral springs, a picnic grove and other rustic amenities.

In 1926, the family deeded 116 acres, a tract that included the wells, mineral springs and picnic area, to Emlenton Borough. The transfer also included the oil and gas rights.

Records show the well produced about three barrels (42 gallons each) of crude oil a month and the proceeds were sufficient enough (at an average $11 a barrel) to later pay for electric service to the pumping jack, parts and assorted operating costs, Marano said.

The borough, meanwhile, was spending a little money here and there on the property, renamed Mineral Springs Park, by adding a swinging bridge and rudimentary camping areas.

In June 1998, a severe storm took out the power lines leading to the Crawford well and, despite some attempts to restore electric service, oil production ceased.

"Everybody kind of forgot about it until we began talking about the need to restore and rehabilitate Mineral Springs," Marano said. "I got really excited about having that well started again."

Marano, working with park restoration committee members Lois Orton, Joyce Beikert, Patty and Ted Russell and Ken Hanby, began applying for grants to do the work. Barry Louise, borough councilman, suggested the group seek funds to perhaps jumpstart the old oil well, too.

Assisted by the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry and Tourism, Marano's efforts resulted in a $60,000 state Growing Greener grant to improve Mineral Springs Park and a $10,000 state Heritage Park Program grant, coupled with a matching $10,000 allocation from community groups, to restart and refurbish the historic well.

"Then I was told that the Crawford well project could cost a lot more because of what its condition might be," Marano said. "That just got all the air going out in this big deflating moment. I thought we'd probably only end up with a sign that said 'there was a well here once'."

In a last minute gesture, Barry Louise asked local oil producer Randy Bartley to check out the Crawford well, one of the oldest producing wells in the U.S. and one of only handful owned by a municipality.

Bartley and his crew, all family, removed the old power house that wrapped around the well jack and used a drilling rig to begin pumping at the Crawford well. On three separate occasions, the well spurted out crude oil, each time without incident.

"There wasn't anything wrong with it. We ended up replacing six pieces of tubing at the bottom of the well and that's all," said Matt Bartley, a junior at Allegheny-Clarion Valley High School. He and his father, Randy, and his grandfather, Skip Beals, represented three generations of oilmen working to re-start the Crawford Well.

Ecstatic about the well rejuvenation, Marano said, "It just all came together at once and the timing is perfect. Here we are the southern gateway to the oil region and approaching the Oil 150 sesquicentennial (birthplace of the oil industry) and this historic well here just suddenly says, 'yeah, I'm ready' and gets pumping again. We're having such a good time with this."

The first barrel of oil (pricey at today's $122 Penn Grade tag) already has been spoken for, the borough manager said. It will be bottled into small commemorative containers and sold to benefit the Pumping Jack Museum in Emlenton's Crawford Center.

Marilyn Black, vice president of heritage development for the Oil Region Alliance, said the Crawford well has both tourism and historical implications.

"It's on public land in a major (Oil Region) gateway. It is so important to have people be able to come in and see a working oil well, especially one that is historic," Black said.

While the well is operable, much remains to be done within the Mineral Springs Park, recently expanded by 12 acres through a donation from Nancy Hopper. The project, set to begin by fall, will include restoration of the historic spring-outlet stonework, installation of historic markers, improvements to the roadway and parking areas, addition of walkways and picnic tables and more.

As to the oil well, a new rough-cut pump house will replace an old corrugated steel-sided shack and new electric service will be provided to the jack. A storage tank, one that Marano said will bear the Quaker State logo, and walkway will be added.

Eyeing the old Crawford well, a slim stand of pipeage absent a pumping jack and power house that are set off to one side, Marano conjures up a scenario that incorporates both old and new.

"I want to use the old jack and all the works to display here and then get a newer jack to actually work on the well," she said. "So, if anyone has a jack they want to give us, just call."