The burning spring that existed here and the salt lick that was located three miles downstream at the river's edge were two natural phenomena that influenced much of the development of the Kanawha Valley. The spring was agitated by bubbling natural gas that would ignite and burn over the water. Discovered by the Van Vibbers in 1773 it later so impressed George Washington that he and General Andrew Lewis purchased the spring.
The ancient salt lick near by was a salt brine seepage that first attracted buffalo, deer and elk. Indians used it to supply their salt needs. Mary Draper Ingles of Virginia, a white prisoner of the Shawnees, was forced to make salt for her captors when the stopped at the lick en route to Kentucky in 1753.
Early settlers used the seepage brine for salt manufacture until David and Joseph Ruffner, searching for a stronger and more plentiful supply, completed drilling of a well in 1808 to a depth of 58 feet by a method they invented. It was the first drilled well in America. Their drilling technique was used to drill many salt wells and a thriving salt industry followed.
In 1841, while drilling for salt at the edge of the burning spring, William Tompkins encountered a strong flow of natural gas which he used under his vats for salt manufacture. This was the first industrial use of
natural gas.
The burning spring and the salt lick excited and inspired the early pioneers and their descendants to develop the drilling technique, tools, and skills that were later used to drill the firs oil well at Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. These methods are still being used by the oil and gas industry. Their salt making grew into a chemical industry.
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