(Editor’s Note. 8 Dec 2023) The organization recognized its 150 yeart history in 2009.
The organization is still active in Northwestern Pennsylavania.
The Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry & Tourism (ORA) administers the Oil 150. The ORA is the manager of the Oil Region National Heritage Area.
The mission of ORA is to increase the prosperity and population of the Oil Region National Heritage Area, through the preservation, promotion, development and support of destinations within the Oil Region National Heritage Area.
This project was financed in part by a Pennsylvania Heritage Parks Program Grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation, via Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry & Tourism. Additional funding was furnished by the National Parks Service, the Oil Region Alliance, and the Petroleum History Institute.
The territory served by the Oil Region Alliance includes all of Venango County in addition to the borough of Hydetown, Oil Creek Township, and the City of Titusville in eastern Crawford County.
The mission of the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry & Tourism is to manage the Oil Region National Heritage Area and to increase the prosperity of the Oil Region by enticing people to live, work, learn and play in “the Valley that Changed the World” through the preservation, promotion, development, and support of historical, educational, natural, recreational, residential, commercial and industrial destinations.
This ambitious and broad mission statement reflects the history and wide-ranging methods of this recently restructured member-driven corporation.
In early 2005, four well-established non-profits merged to create the new Oil Region Alliance: Venango Economic Development Corporation; Oil Heritage Region, Inc.; Oil Heritage Region Tourist Promotion Agency; and Oil City Community Development Corporation.
ORA has been designated by federal legislation as the administrator of the Oil Region National Heritage Area. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has further designated ORA as the official tourist promotion agency serving Venango County, and the administrator of the Pennsylvania Oil Region Heritage Park. These dual designations enable ORA to tap multiple public and private resources to package assistance to achieve the corporate mission.
Today the functions provided by the Oil Region Alliance through its Board of Directors, staff, volunteers, members, and contractors are quite diverse. The activities and programs are intended to offer flexible solutions while helping the area’s businesses, municipalities, and residents experience sustainable development and enhancement, without losing sight of the unusual legacy of being the birthplace of the world’s petroleum industry.
The Oil Region National Heritage Area tells the stories of Colonel Edwin Drake’s drilling of the world’s first successful commercial oil well in 1859 and the legacy of the petroleum industry, which even now continues to shape daily life, industry, economy, society, and politics. The Oil Region includes oil artifacts, scenic Victorian valley and riverbed communities, plateau developments, farmlands and woodlands, and industrial landscapes. Today visitors enjoy heritage attractions, warm hospitality, and four seasons of outdoor recreation in “the valley that changed the world.”
See also: Earthshare. The Environmental Toll of Fracking: A Closer Look at Health, Culture, and Community. 1 Jul 2023. EarthShare.
The History of Fracking in Pennsylvania
Fracking happens all over the world, but to provide a more grounded view, let’s take a look at the state of Pennsylvania specifically. The practice of fracking became standard practice in the 1940s, but its history dates back even earlier in Pennsylvania when liquid nitroglycerin was used to “shoot” oil wells, stimulating rock formations to increase oil flow and extraction. Since the invention of hydraulic fracturing, more than one million wells have been drilled and fracked in the state. But what made this process so popular?
For starters, Pennsylvania is rich in shale (the deep, porous rock formations that house trapped gas and oil underground), and economically struggling communities were promised significant money to lease their land to fossil fuel companies for the extraction of fossil gases and oil. Unfortunately, this money was insubstantial compared to the construction, noise, contamination, and illness that faced these (often rural) communities.
Public safety policies are rarely enforced in pro-fossil fuel states, and communities suffer health complications from contaminated drinking water and breathing polluted air.
So, what are these risks?
Earthshare. The Environmental Toll of Fracking: A Closer Look at Health, Culture, and Community. 1 Jul 2023. EarthShare.
See: Clean Water Act Definition of “Waters of the United States”
See: US natural gas drilling boom linked to pollution and social strife
