Location of the first commercial oil well in North America (1858), Oil Springs was the site of a huge boom in the early 1860s, following the discovery of surface asphalt here in the mid-1850s. Even before the first well was dug, asphalt—oil that seeped to the surface and hardened—was shipped to Paris, France, in 1855 to pave its sidewalks. In 1862 the first gusher turned the area into a boom town overnight. Learn More...