Poking Around in Morgantown

Poking Around in Morgantown
The Tank Field
by Craig Mains

Anyone who has spent anytime walking or biking around in the wooded parts of White Park has noticed that the park is covered by many low earthen embankments. When I first moved to Morgantown in 1970 I noticed them on a fishing excursion to the Cobun Creek reservoir. I asked some friends who had grown up in Morgantown about them and they told me they were from the from the "old tank farm." They didn't really know much about them---only that there used to be many oil tanks in the area and the embankments were "dikes" that had surrounded the tanks. Many, but not all, were circular. I remember being briefly disappointed that they were industrial artifacts and not those of some pre-Columbian, mound-building culture.

At that time the area around the reservoir was mostly all woods---there was no skating rink, no softball fields, no Vo-Tech center, no middle school. That end of Mississippi St. was gravel. There were no developed trails. The woods were generously posted by the local water utility with No Trespassing signs.

The tank field, I later learned, was a part of Morgantown's role in the emergence of the American oil industry. The tanks were a component of a pipeline that connected the oil fields of West Virginia to refineries along the Atlantic coast. The tank field belonged to a company called the Eureka Pipe Line Company, which was incorporated in 1890. Eureka immediately started building oil tanks south of Morgantown. By the end of 1890, eight tanks with a capacity of 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil had already been completed. The tanks provided temporary storage of oil to accomodate the difference between oil field production and refinery demand.

Early on, the facility was fed from the West Virginia oil fields along the Ohio River in Tyler and Pleasants counties, about 80 miles from Morgantown. Eureka came from the name of an oil boom town in Pleasants County. For a brief period of time, until much larger oil deposits were discovered in Texas, the oil field in the Sistersville area was considered to be one of the biggest in the US. Another early feeder line was soon added from the oil field in western Monongalia County along Pedlars and Dolls Runs.

A view of the Morgantown tank field in 1895.

At the time this photo was taken the oil was used not to produce gasoline but mostly to make kersosene for lighting. The first automobile sold in the US was not until 1897 so there was as yet little demand for gasoline. Horse-drawn buggies, carriages, and delivery wagons were still the standard way of transporting people and material goods.

Similarly, electricity for lighting was known but not widely used yet. The first small-scale electrification in Morgantown was in 1891, mostly to light university buildings. A larger electrical plant was built at the foot of Kingwood Street in 1899 to provide some residential electricity. Prior to electrification, many cities, including Morgantown, used natural gas for residential and commercial lighting. However, rural areas and areas without natural gas still used kerosene lamps for lighting. There was also a big export market for kerosene for lighting. As electrical lighting and automobiles simultaneously became more common the demand for kerosene decreased and the demand for gasoline increased

Above is a portion of the 1902 USGS topo map of the Morgantown area. By then there were 37 tanks in the field. The road running to the northeast of the tank field is Dorsey Avenue. The road along the southern edge of the tank field is roughly, but not quite, where Greenbag Road is today.

Shown is a picture of some young ladies and gentlemen, possibly WVU students, posing on one of the oil tanks in the Eureka Tank Field. The photo was taken around the turn of the 20th century.

The early tanks such as the one in the above photo were made of riveted steel, which had replaced wooden storage tanks. Riveted tanks tended to leak so arc-welded tanks, which began appearing in the 1920s, quickly replaced riveted tanks. Note that in the photo above there appears to be some evidence of leakage.

The tanks were widely spaced so if one tank caught on fire the others were not ignited. Tanks were indeed occasionally ignited by lightning and fires occurred at the tank field in 1899, 1910, 1912, 1916, 1922, and 1927. The photo above is from the 1922 fire. Note the spectators seated on the right in the background of the photo. Dorseys Knob is in the far background.

The photo above clearly shows the dike or berm that was built around the tanks. These were probably primarily to keep rivers of burning oil from flowing downslope toward other tanks in case of a fire but may have also been to catch leaks. The berms, such as the one shown above, are the same ones that are still present today in White Park some 100 plus years later.

The fires, it was typically written in the local paper, "burned in the most spectacular fashion" because of the huge billowing clouds of dense smoke. This photo is from the 1927 fire.

Some of the old tank fire photos are labeled as fires at the "Standard Oil Tank Field." At some point early on the Eureka Pipe Line Company became a subsidiary of Standard Oil. As John D. Rockefeller bought up companies he sometimes continued to operate them under their original company name. This was because he did not want his competitors to know how aggressively he was buying up other companies and because of anti-monopoly sentiment. People in Morgantown seemed to be well aware that Eureka was part of Standard OIl. However, in 1911 the US Supreme Court ordered Standard Oil to be broken up due to monopolistic practices. Eureka Pipe Line Company was one of the companies that was divested and, although people in Morgantown sometimes continued to refer to it as Standard Oil, it had gone back to being the Eureka Pipe Line Company

As new feeder lines were added, more tanks were added to the tank field. Feeder lines were laid from western Marion county, Lincoln county, and a line was connected from the existing line in the Sistersville area to eastern Kentucky. By 1912, there were 46 tanks in the field with each tank holding 16,000 to 36,000 barrels. The total storage capacity of the tank field was more than one million barrels. Each day 60,000 barrels were pumped to the Atlantic Coast refineries.

Shown above is the 1925 USGS topo map for the Morgantown area. By then there were 68 tanks in the facility. Expansion occurred mainly to the south into the area where the Mountaineer Mall is now located and along Cobun Creek near where the federal correctional facility is now located.

As residential areas grew outward from Morgantown, some tanks would seem to be dangerously close to homes in the First Ward area. During at least one of the fires there was some concern about houses becoming ignited

USGS topo maps indicate that sometime between 1925 and 1957 the tanks began to be dismantled. Since having storage capacity for petroleum would have been highly useful during the war it is likely that the dismantling started after the end of World War II.

This section of a much larger panoramic photo, taken from across the river during the construction of the Morgantown Ordnance Works in 1941, shows some of the tanks still visible on the horizon. The road in the picture is the Grafton Road. Dorseys Knob would be to the right of the photo.

Above is a section of the USGS Morgantown South topo quad for 1957. By then only three tanks remained. Eureka continued to pump oil but only as much oil as the downstream refineries could handle and they accepted only the same volume from the upstream wells, making storage tanks unnecessary.

In 1947 the city of Morgantown bought 17 acres of the abandoned tank field from Eureka, which included the area where the first Cobun Creek reservoir is now located. In 1968 the school board bought 26 acres and in 1973 the city bought another 128 acres, which was the remainder of what was then left of the tank field property.

Note the Cobun Creek reservoir shows up for the first time on the 1957 map. The reservoir was completed that year for use as an alternative drinking water source to the Monongahela River. It might seem like the heart of a former oil tank field would not be the best location for a drinking water supply reservoir but that was apparently not a consideration in 1957. A friend of mine who previously worked for MUB told me the water utility liked the Cobun Creek reservoir because the water could be run by gravity down to the water treatment plant, unlike the river water which had to be pumped, at some expense, up into the plant. He told me after the Safe Drinking Water Act was passed in 1974 that the Cobun Creek water was used less because of traces of oil in the source water, which were, at the time, difficult to remove at the treatment plant. Although the berms and the pads the tanks were built upon appear to have been clay lined, it was probably inevitable that some oil ended up in the water. For 17 years the residents of Morgantown were unaware that they were sometimes getting a trace bit of Eureka oil with their drinking water

Besides the berms in White Park the only other visible reminder of the Eureka enterprise is this group of buildings that included the pump station. All three buildings are still standing at the mouth of Cobun Creek. The view in this undated photo is looking from what is now the rail trail towards Don Knotts Boulevard. The pump station likely would have had a dual purpose. One would have been to maintain some pressure on the main pipeline and the other would be to pump oil uphill to the tank field as needed.

The 8-inch diameter mainline to pump the oil to the Philadelphia area was completed in 1891. Other nearby Eureka pump stations were located in Shinnston and near Core but there would have been a string of other pump stations as well. The pump station shown above appears to have been larger, probably because of the extra demands of pumping oil uphill to the tank field.

This photo shows the same buildings today. The view is from the opposite direction of the previous photo. It is looking from near Don Knotts Boulevard towards the rail trail. The buildings are much altered but still recognizable. Structures have been added between and around the edges of the original buildings. The bricks have been stuccoed over. The smokestack shown in the previous photo is still present but it is noticeably shorter.

I have read that Eureka quit operating in Morgantown in 1940 but this does not appear to be entirely true. In 1964 the West Virginia Supreme Court heard a case involving Eureka. Because by then there was no tank field, Eureka could only accept as much oil from upstream producers as the downstream refiners could accept. There was no longer an option to store excess oil in the tank field. Eureka and various oil company representatives had met to discuss how to fairly decide which producers' oil would get transported to refiners during times of oversupply and there was some question about the legality of the agreement. A summary of the 1964 case mentioned that Eureka's principle pipeline ran through Monongalia County.

It is possible that once the tanks were gone, the pump station wasn't necessary and that made it appear that Eureka had closed operations. However, it seems clear that oil continued to be moved underneath Morgantown for many years after the tanks were gone and the pump house was closed.

The tanks are now all long gone but some of the berms remain. I could detect at least 10 circular berms of varying diameters on Google Earth including the one shown above. Others that are not obvious on Google Earth are visible when walking in the park. The berms that still exist vary in height from about two feet to eight feet. The one shown above is one of the taller and wider ones. The small trailhead parking lot along Mississippi Street would be just to the bottom left of this picture. Not visible in the Google Earth image is a smaller concentric circle in the middle of this circular berm. This was probably where the tank stood.

Some of the secondary trails in White Park run along the top of the old berms. In this photo the berm arcs to the right. The remaining berms are not as distinct as I remember them being back in 1970. After 50 plus years of weathering and friction from the tires of mountain bikes that is only to be expected. That something that goes back to the twilight of the horse and buggy and kerosene lamp era hasn't been totally bulldozed and is still visible on the land at all is remarkable.

Sources

Core, Earl L. The Monongalia Story: A Bicentennial History, Vol. IV, Industrialization, McClain Printing, 1982.

Eureka Pipe Line Company v. Public Service Commission of West Virginia et al. Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.
Source: Law.Justicia.com

"Morgantown Ordnance Works Panoramas 1940-1942. National Archives, Identifier 72014163. 1940-1942. Photograph.
Source: Prologue.Plogs.Archives.gov

"Oil Storage Tank, Morgantown, W. Va." West Virginia History OnView, WVU Libraries. 1890-1920. Photograph.
Source: West Virginia History OnView

"Oil Tank Fire, Morgantown, W. Va." West Virginia History OnView, WVU Libraries. 1927. Photograph.
Source: West Virginia History OnView

"Oil Tank Fired by Lightning" Gibson Kodak Co. 1922. Photograph.
Source: MorgantownHistoryMuseum.org

"Oil Tanks in Morgantown, W. Va." West Virginia History OnView, WVU Libraries. 1895. Photograph.
Source: West Virginia History OnView

United States Geological Survey. Morgantown, W.Va.-Pa., 15' quad. USGS, 1902. Map.
Source: USGS Topo View

United States Geological Survey. Morgantown, W.Va.-Pa., 15' quad. USGS, 1925. Map.
Source: USGS Topo View

United States Geological Survey. Morgantown South, WV., 7.5' quad. USGS, 1957. Map.
Source: USGS Topo View

Venable, Wallace and Norma. Around Morgantown. Arcadia Press 2007.

Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. New York: Free Press, 2009.

 

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