Early Oil Wells Historic Marker on U. S. Route 50 in Ritchie County, W. Va.
Date:
1950
Description:
"Early Oil Wells--To the south, birthplace of West Virginia's oil industry. On Hughes River oil was found in gravel beds in 1810. As "bank oil," a medicine, Bushrod Creel sold 100 barrels of it per year in 1836. Volcano was one of first boom oil towns."
Tollgate Historic Marker on U. S. Route 50 in Ritchie County, W. Va.
Date:
1950
Description:
"Tollgate--The Northwestern Turnpike, a favorite project of George Washington, opened in 1838. Such highways were called "turnpikes" from the gates at which tolls were collected. This town is named for the toll gate which stood here."
Cairo Illinois or Mound City, Illinois or Kentucky. The marker reads: The Prince of the French Explorers--Commissioned by Louis XIV of France the Sieur Robert De La Salle, sweeping down the Mississippi with his Flotilla of canoes stopped in 1882 at this place. In his quest for the mouth of the Mississippi and an outlet for the French fur trade. This river called Ohio by the Iroquois and Quabache (Wabash) by the Algonquins was proclaimed by La Salle on April 9, 1882 to be the Northern watershed of the New Province of Louisiana of the French Colonial Empire.
