Washington. -Area, 890 square miles; population in 1880, 55,418. The
geology of this county is a continuation northward of the geology of
Greene County already described, with the difference that the mass of
the Upper Barren measures is thinner, i.e. confined chiefly to
the lower or Washington county group, which is more and more
washed away, until only the lowest beds are left on the hill tops south
of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St.Louis railroad, and south of Chartiers
Creek in North Strabane and Peters Townships. The Upper Productive
coal measures come out from under it in the northern and eastern
townships; and the Pittsburgh coal bed not only carries its outcrop
along the river below Millsborough and from Brownsville down stream;
but along Chartiers Creek 7 miles; along Cross Creek from Patterson
to the State line; along Harman’s Creek and Raccoon Creek; and around
the summits in Hanover Township, all the lower grounds being occupied
by Lower Barren measures. The best geological section is afforded
by the wells recently bored for gas on Chartiers Creek north of Washington.
The McGuigan well, for example, in Mt. Pleasant Township,
6 ¾ S.S.E. of Burgettstown and 2 ½ miles S.W. of Hickory P.O. on a branch
of Cross Creek, at 1,175` A.T. was stopped by a tremendous flow of gas
at a depth of 2,237` (1,062` below sea-level), which was long
allowed to waste itself in the air; but the Niagara Oil Company, who
purchased it in 1882, have laid a 6-inch pipe, 22 miles long, to Pittsburgh,
where the gas is used in Taylor’s salt works at Temperanceville, in
Painter & Louis’ iron works, South Side, and in about fifty private
houses along the route. In 1884 an additional 8-inch pipe line was laid
from the Pittsburgh end for six miles, to be completed in 1885. This
has already nearly doubled the delivery at the Pittsburgh end, although
fed from the single 6-inch pipe at the well, where the pressure was
(December 28, 1884) 193 lbs. to the square inch, even while a large
dark rich smoky flame was issuing from an escape pipe into the air,
and a good deal of gas was escaping also from the safety-valve, with
a rather fetid odor and a faint smell of petroleum. The old record marks
Coal (5`) at 180` down; Coal (15`!) at 285`; 1st
sandstone (40` thick) encountered at 762`; 2d (35`) 865`; 3d with a
little gas (40`) 988`; 4th (55`) 1,100; 5th (234`
with 15` of slate included in it) 1,266` to 1,500`; 6th (10`)
at 1,578`; 7th (5`) 1850`; 8th (10`) 2,035`; 9th
Gas sand (8` and more) from 2237` to 2245` bottom of well. The
second coal encountered was probably the Pittsburgh bed. The
3d sand from which cam a little gas is part of the Mahoning sandstone
which furnished the oil for the Dunkard Creek wells in Greene County;
and the 5th sand the Pottsville conglomerate No.XII; below
which the great Gas sand lies 700`, and therefore on the horizon of
either the 1st or 2d Butler County Oil sand. The Gas sand
of this well lies 1960` beneath the supposed Pittsburgh coal bed cut
in the upper part of the well. [The Boyd’s Hill well in Pittsburgh poured
its flood (3000 to 4000 bbls. per day) of brine from a white sand rock
(112` thick) the bottom of which lies 1950` beneath the Pittsburgh bed.
(See Report L, p. 229.)]
The Hess well is remarkable for showing in its record-bottles at least
four limestones, at depths of 330`, 513`, 962`, and 1385`.
The Pittsburgh coal being cut at 242, the lowest limestone is probably
the 25` limestone at (889`-914`) in the Boyd Hill well at Pittsburgh,
the ("Mountain limestone") which appears in gaps of Chestnut Ridge
and Laurel Hill on the Conemaugh and Youghiogheny Rivers. The Gantz
Mill well, bored just outside the Washington borough limits, late
in 1884, at 1030` A.T., had a carefully kept record of the strata
underlying the uplands of the county: Loam 10`, limestone 20`,
coal and slate 4`, limestone 20`, slate &c. 200`,
hard gray sandstone 20`, black slate 30`, hard sandstone 25`, slate
4`, soft white sandstone 5`, blackslate 1`, (Pittsburgh) coal bed
5`, soft sand 10`, slate 12`, hard shell 2`, slate 10`, hard gray
sand 11`, slate 30`, soft white sandstone 10`, slate 51`, very hard
sand 80`, slate 10`, limestone 5`, slate 15`, red rock "inclined
to cave" 60`, slate &c. 40`, red rock "caving badly" 25`,
slate 32`, red rock 25`, white sand 20`, slate &c. 100`,
hard gray (Mahoning) sandstone 100`. [This makes the LOWER
BARREN MEASURES 648 feet thick.] Then, (Freeport Upper)
coal and slate 12`, slate &c. 60`, sandstone 20`, slate &c.
100`, hard white sand with salt water 57`, black slate (no
grit) 15`, soft white sand 10`, slate &c. 15`, hard bluish gray
sand 12`, slate &c. 27`, sandstone (yielding gas but soon exhausted)
10`, black slate (no grit) 10`, hard, flinty sand 3, black slate (no
grit) 77`, limestone 30`, [to 1450`, below which lay a continuous
series of sandstone layers] hard white 90`, softer 6, hard 8`, alternately
hard and soft 40`, fine, blue gray 20`, alternately hard and soft
140`, very hard 16`, [to 1770`, in all 320`.] Then, black slate (no
grit) 25`, pebbly sandstone 40`, slate and hard shells 100`
[to 1935`,] slate &c. 40`, white hard pebbly sandstone
8`, good drilling slate 25`, blackish rotten sandstone 10`, brownish
red sandstone 8`, slate 15`, dark pebbly sandstone 6`, fine
coffee colored sandstone 12` [to 2199`] when on going 2` more into
sandstone the drill stopped with a good show of oil, at 2101` [1071
feet below sea level; and 1757` beneath the Pittsburgh coal bed,]
which goes to disprove the popular idea that liquid petroleum
cannot exist much below sea level; and indicates that the Clarion-Butler
Oil Belt may extend through south-western Pennsylvania at a depth
of 2500` or 3000`, perhaps into West Virginia.
From: A geological hand atlas of the sixty-seven
counties of Pennsylvania :embodying the results of the field work
of the survey, from 1874 to 1884. By J. P. Lesley. (Report of
progress (Geological Survey of Pennsylvania), v. X ) Harrisburg, PA
: Board of commissioners for the second geological survey, 1885.
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