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Mountwood
Park was built in the early 1970s, but the “real” history
behind the Park began in the mid-1860s when an oil boom
swept the area that is now Mountwood Park.
The off
shore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and the North
Sea are amazing examples of geology, engineering, and plain
old hard work! These “sentinels” mark the path of our
journey to quench an ever-growing thirst for oil. This well
traveled road has passed through many communities in the
mid-Ohio Valley; but one city, a town now gone, would be
marked with a large star if the journey for oil were mapped:
Volcano, West Virginia.
Volcano
was a thriving 1860s oil boomtown bordering Ritchie and Wood
Counties and was reminiscent of California’s gold rush
towns. In addition to countless oil rigs, Volcano had an
opera hall, bowling alley, and establishments serving every
need and desire.
By 1870,
Volcano had introduced the bathtub to Wood County, the first
standard gauge railroad built within West Virginia and the
introduction of the “endless cable pumping system” to oil
production in the United States. Prior to 1900, Volcano’s
highest grade of oil sold for as much as $60 per barrel! By
1974, 2,500,000 barrels of oil had been produced from the
Volcano fields.
The
memory of Volcano is commemorated every year at Mountwood
Park through the “Volcano Days” celebration, a fun-filled
weekend melding past and present.
The Park
also commemorates Volcano through a display of artifacts,
pictures, newspaper articles, and oilfield documents in the
basement of the William Cooper Stiles Jr. Administration
Building. The display is open Monday though Friday from
8:30 to 4:30. For groups, the display can be opened on
weekends. There is no charge but donations are
appreciated.
Throughout the Park there are signs dedicated to the Volcano
oilfields that can be accessed by automobile, or for the
more adventurous, by hiking. A map showing the location of
the signs can be obtained at the administration building.
 We
hope that you enjoy the photos and history which are part of
the rich tapestry of the Appalachias. Enjoy!
Pictured left is a Volcano
school. It was located near the top of a steep ridge. One
of the children is George West, the operator of the last
endless cable system in Volcano.
To the right, you can see
Laurel Fork & Sand Hill Railroad, the first standard gauge
railroad to be built within WV. It operated from 1866
through 1879 when it was rendered obsolete by the completion
of a pipeline to the refineries in Parkersburg.
The LF & SH RR cost $160,000
to complete and was principally paid for by William
Cooper Stiles, Jr. There were two engines with four
trains running to Volcano
Junction where tank cars and passengers were transferred
to the B&O line to Parkersburg. due to steep inclines,
there were numerous tressles and switch backs (Cass
Scenic RR).
 Pictured
left, you see one of two hotels that served Volcano.
During this time period, Volcano was reminiscent of the
California gold rush towns and other towns such as
Tombstone and Dodge City....not for the faint of heart.
Below is pictured Thornhill, the mansion of William
Cooper Stile, Jr., the father of Volcano. It was
built at a cost of $60,000, shaped like a Maltese
cross, three stories, and twenty five rooms.
Introduced the bath tub to Wood County.Lush
vegetable and flower gardens surrounded this stately
mansion on one of the highest hills in Volcano.
After Mr. Stiles' death in 1896, the family moved
and the house was rented. After the oil was
exhausted, Mother Nature and vandals destroyed
Thornhill.
BOOKS for SALE
Volcano,
West Virginia
($15) and The Borland Springs Hotel
($12) are available for sale at the William Cooper
Stiles, Jr. Administration Building. These works
describe much of the history for the neighborhood
surrounding the Park.
Local Sites of
Historical Interest
The following
organizations are a treasure trove of local history
and are an easy commute from Mountwood Park.
Some things you might have never known about
Parkersburg, WV:
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The first economic boom for the region came with
the drilling of oil and gas wells in West
Virginia during the Civil War. Later, the
Parkersburg Rig & Reel Company manufactured oil
field equipment that could be found in petroleum
producing centers throughout the world.
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Parkersburg could be called the "Savings Bond Capital of
America." Since 1957, when the U.S. Treasury
Department's Bureau of Public Debt was moved
here, every U.S. Savings Bond bought or redeemed
has passed through the Parkersburg office for
processing.
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Early in 1862 the first free school south of the
Mason-Dixon Line for African-American children
was opened in Parkersburg. It was founded by
seven Black men who wished to provide an
education for their children. They named the
facility Sumner School.
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The Parkersburg Post Office was one of the first
in the country to offer free city mail delivery
beginning in 1887.
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Floating soap, later sold by Proctor & Gamble as
'Ivory,' was first developed at Parkersburg's
Upson Oil & Soap Works, also the home of the
world-famous French Process Laundry Soap.
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The stretch of the Ohio River between
Blennerhassett Island and Parkersburg has long
been regarded by rivermen as one of the most
dangerous sections of the entire river to
maneuver a craft through due to its sharp bend.
So many boats sank there that it gained the
dubious title 'Graveyard of the Ohio.' The
addition of the railroad bridge across the Ohio
River further complicated this hazardous bend.
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While Greater Parkersburg is currently home to
the DuPont Company's largest plant in North
America, the city once boasted other large
manufacturing facilities that are no longer in
the area. These included the largest shovel
plant in the world, the Ames Company, maker of
the shovel 'That Built America.' Founded in the
early 1770s, the company made the shovels that
dug the trenches at Bunker Hill.
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Parkersburg also had the world's first and
largest rayon mill, American Viscose, and one of
two plants in the world to manufacture Vitolite.
Billed as 'Better Than Marble ,' the Libbey-Owens-Ford
plant in Vienna produced this colored glass that
was widely used in homes and public buildings,
including the Empire State Building.
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Parkersburg's Henry Cooper Log Cabin Museum is
home to one the nation's largest button
collections.
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Victor G. Bloede, the Baltimore chemist who
developed the adhesive on government postage
stamps, began his career in Parkersburg. He has
been called 'The Man Who Made Stamps Stick..'
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Wood
County could be called 'The County of Governors
' since no other West Virginia county has
produced more governors. Only Kanawha County,
the state's largest county, has equaled the
number of state chief executives elected from
Wood County. The state's first governor and
three other later governors have called
Parkersburg home.
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