Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-03-20
More & bout the Burning Well.


The Meadvllle pa } Republican Of Thu sday
mas the following additional PARTICULARS oon-
cerning The burning we'll OF which We gave
50 me account few days ago
FRANKLIN, Pa, Feb. l3. 1866
- 1t occurred 10 me that more detailed ac-
count of the Burning Well referred To by
your correspondent from this place, few days
ago, woIld be interesting TO your readers. Ii
is certainly one OF the greatest cnriosties to be
found IN The oil region. 1t yields in interest to
none Of the great phenomena found in other
lands, and richly repays one for the trouble and
fatigue endured IN visiting It, The well Is sit
uated on the eastern bank OF he Allegheny, at
the mouth OF Mog's Run, or it Is sometimes
called, Pine Hui Run. The distance below
Franklin Is about twenty miles by the course of
the river, across the bills alb 1ut twelve miles
The mode of travel by your correspondent was
by the river, on the Ice about halt the distance,
the remainder over the hills.
- As you approach he region of the well The
country becomes rough AMI romantic the ex-
treme. High bills and abrupt precipces are
covered and Overhung by immense masses OF de-
tached rock that seem scattered at random on
the hill tops and on the sIdes OF the acclIvItIee
1t the glicIal theory OF Agass be correc, then
the Icebergs that We're ancored here were tbicky
laden win mighty boulders from the North
Be this ae it may, the rocky masses lying
here IN wonderful confusion.
Before you approach near enough to the
we'll TO see the hanes, your ears salu ted with
the roaring sound similar to tDat which Ross
Brown describes peculiar to the Geysers in
Iceland. IL seems 20 be due chiefly to the rush
OF gas fr. Ii. Ebe depths below, but may be In
part from the Hame itself It rises hls b in the
air.
y Lake most great ouriostles, this well suffers
from surrounding CIRCUMSTANCES. There is no
good object near with which it may be compared
A. hdedf tn h.,h hill a
II are from six hundred TO thousand feet in
height, atfordlng as back ground rocks aud
shrubs and stunted trees, that tend to diminish
It's effect on the eye and imagination.
Ih9 well was OF course bored for OIL. 1t had
reached a depth of some five hu ndred feet, when
the column OF gas, that must be immense rushed
up and became IgnIted frOm the furnace OF the
en- inc. Soon, OF course, the derrick engine
house, and fixtures were consumed and the en-
gine ltseii wreck. The top of the conductor
which energies from the pit, being Of wood, was
burned Oft, when an attempt made to fill
up the pit with earth, and extinguish the flames.
This provei failure, as the pressure of the gas
was 100 great to be easily filled up.
- AS 1t lie seen at present, the gas rushes
through the loose earth thousand lets, and
the result Is that column of flame constantly
emerges from the PIT equal to its size, which is,
perhaps, eight feet square. This column rises
TO height of from fifty to one hundred feet,
Vary ing every few seconds from the minimum to
the maximum height. The pillar Is not regular
in form. but rough and Jagged Sometimes it
is divided, and sends It's tongues OF flame out in
every direction. As it reaches It's greatest
height, the top of the flame leaps of and
tinguIshed. This is the appearance in daylight.
AT night, aid surrounded Dy the darkness, It's
appearance must be awtully grand and impos-
ing
II am inclined to think that there is some oil
IN Of
as every three or tour seconds o cloud OF dark
smoke rolls up with the flames and is swept to
its very summit. VIXEN 1t disappears.
"Some visitors compute the height at one
hundred and fifty feet. This is probably cor
rect at SINE periods, as the day visited it, the
air was damp and unfavorable to its reaching
it's greatest height.
- The roaring sound is constant, and almost
resembles the sound of distant thunder. The
climate in the neighborhood is very mild and
summer-llke. The buds on the shrubs are e4-
pandIng and the grass green and fresh as in
April, while the very ice on the river has melted
and disappeared.
the we'll has been burning about three
weeks, with no apparent diminution in its pow
er, or in the quantity of gas, so that at present
it bids far to afford light to the people for some
time to come.
Although the 81 is surrounded on all sides
bY hlIis OF such lofty proportions, yet at night
the light Is seen at great distance. At Frank
lin 1t lights up the southern horizon with
bright, remulOus glow.
This light assumed very strange appear
ance one evening last week. 1t was somewhat
cloudy, and in addition to the usual ruddy glow
the light appeared to concentrate itself into a
bright lance-like figure about four or five de- Z
grees in length. that remained stationary about
midway between the horizon and the zeniih,
where it continued all the evening"
One Of the ST .InhnshrrY oil c0mnaniaa has