Documents containing event information for the Oil 150 celebration are now available for download. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader or the free Foxit Reader to view and print these documents.
You’re invited to participate in Titusville OIL150 Chalk Walk Contest that will be held Friday, August 28 through Sunday, August 30, as part of oil week in Titusville, PA. The event will take place on Spring Street—from Perry Street to Exchange Place. Pre-registration will be accepted on a first come first serve bases until all drawing areas are full. You may register as an individual or as a 2 person team. There is no registration fee.
The theme for the Titusville OIL150 Chalk Walk Contest, in conjunction with the parade theme will be OIL150, AMERICA’S ENERGY, YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW. All artists are encouraged to incorporate that theme into their work, but it is not mandatory.
Contestants must be at least 12 years of age. Children under the age of 12 will be provided an area for drawing, but their work will not be included in the competition. The contest will be divided in four divisions: middle school, high school, amateur and professional. A professional is defined as someone who has sold a piece of their art. If you are working as a team instead of an individual, you must register your team at the level of the highest qualified member.
Upon registering at the registration booth Friday or Saturday, each contestant/team will be assigned an 8’ x 8’ square to create their chalk art. The chalk will be provided. You may start to create your art Friday, August 28 at 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. or start Saturday, August 29 at 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. The public will be able to start casting votes at 4:00 p.m. Saturday through Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Each division will include a first, second and third place winner. The winners will be announced from the registration booth as soon as all votes are counted. The winning masterpieces will also be adorned with ribbons and the winning artists will be awarded a cash prize.
Registration forms are available by contacting Jody Gustafson at (814)671-5517 or download the registration forms here.
Titusville - OIL 150 By Margaret Fiely, Publicity Chair
Excitement continues to mount to the very special time for Titusville to shine - in particular, August 19 through 29. Yes, ten days of non-stop events for all ages. Prior to these ten days there are various events to be enjoyed. One in particular to be held on Thursday, July 23 is the re-creation of the Ida Tarbell dinner, which was originally held in 1939 in the Colestock High School Gymnasium.
Miss Tarbell, an 1876 alumnae of THS, is termed as one of the most global alumni. In a time when women's roles were confined mostly to housewife and teacher, she wrote History ofthe Standard Oil Company, and in doing so took a stand against the methods of John D. Rockefeller and his powerful hold on the burgeoning oil industry. Her book was instrumental in bringing about sweeping changes in industry.
Miss Tarbell's father opened a tank shop in Pithole about the time Lincoln was assassinated.
Her family moved from Wattsburg in 1870 to Rouseville to Titusville at 324 East Main Street, which still stands. A project of the Oil Region Alliance, Titusville Historical Society and friends is to refurbish to the era when the Tarbell's owned it.
Upon graduation from THS, topping her class academically, she enrolled in Allegheny College, the only female in the freshman class.
With this background for the famous Miss Tarbell, the committee of Barb Zolli, who portrays Ida Tarbell; Lynn Cressman, local English educator and with a keen interest in Ida's career of writing and Chana Hopkins, an associate with Metz Food Service at the high school, who also shares an interest in Ida's life as a writer, have staged this special dinner for the juniors at THS in 2008 and 2009. The original dinner was held in the Colestock Gymnasium in 1939, the return of Ida to Titusville to honor Dr. Paul H. Giddens book "The Birth ofthe Oil Industry."
The dinner menu will follow the original menu, as was served to the high school students. The menu appeared in the issue of TheTitusville Herald in 1939.
The July dinner is open to the public with seating for 150. The original program of the evening will be followed as well. A twist to the July dinner will be a social hour on the lawn at the Tarbell house. Guests attending the event are encouraged to dress in the attire of the 1930's and ‘40's. From the Tarbell House, the guests will parade to Colestock Gymnasium and enter the dinner to the tunes that were played in 1939.
Other dignitaries will be sharing the dais with Ida for this very, very special evening.
Tickets will be made available for purchase in early June. Contact the alumni office to reserve your tickets, 814-827-1283.
We are celebrating a 150 year old event that changed - and still influences - everyone's daily routine. But the change associated with the drilling of the first successful oil well hasn't always been positive.
As a young child, Ida Tarbell witnessed the very beginning of the oil industry and personally experienced many of the changes it brought about. She grew up playing among the oil derricks, and later on in her childhood benefited from the success her father achieved as a businessman who, for a time, was able to adapt to the prospering oil industry. She was curious and intelligent, traits that would lead her through a very interesting life. Investigative journalism, or muckraking, would be her most remembered accomplishment.
As the first blasts of winter descend on "the valley that changed the world", it may be hard to imagine that in 281 days we will be celebrating the exact 150 year anniversary of the first successfully drilled commercial oil well. Each week in The Herald we have been sharing information about events leading up to and immediately following, that historical moment, as well as sharing important information about our upcoming celebration. As Paul Harvey might say, we're trying to share "the rest of the story".
There is a fine balancing act to perform in giving out information leading up to a significant event. Wait too long, and people can't properly prepare - or the planning, however detailed, gets lost and confused by the community. Give too much too soon, and people can become indifferent, or take it for granted that they are not needed to help in the process.
Titusville's Oil 150 celebration is a mammoth undertaking. There are hundreds of details that have to be worked out, money to be raised, programs to be organized, and timelines to be set. As with any such celebration, there are committees that are planning and overseeing the progress, but everyone is not only welcome, they are needed to ensure its success.
Our purpose in providing this space, with the help and support of The Herald, is to keep the Oil 150 celebration on your mind, to give you information, and to encourage you to get involved - not only during the last week in August 2009, but right now when you can play a significant role in bringing this celebration from a dream to a reality. To share an idea or find out where you can help, call Barb Ives, chairperson for Titusville Oil 150, at 827-3985 or 827-2037.
Back in October, we talked about the fabulous parade being planned for Oil 150. The fact that the Zem Zem/Shriner's have designated us as a "point parade" means we will see almost all of their 19 different parade units. Add to that the many marching units, musical groups, fire trucks, service organizations, festival queens, dancers, and clowns, and we're looking at something really special on Aug. 29, 2009!
Welcome to the Titusville Oil 150 Website. We are working hard to prepare for what we believe will be an event of monumental impact for all of NWPA and especially for the City of Titusville. The opportunity to bring Titusville into the national spotlight has not been this available since the Centennial Celebration held in 1959. Dan Beck, formerly of Titusville, now residing in New York City has described the importance of this coming year extremely well when he wrote the following:
"Very few communities in the entire United States are the home of an historic event that warrants an anniversary celebration able to impact local and national attention. The discovery of oil and oil’s ultimate impact, not only on our nation, but on the entire globe, is perhaps the most pivotal economic moment in man’s history on earth. Billions of people have been affected every day of their lives over the past 150 years because of the imperatives oil has established in such a vast array of consumer and industrial goods. This impact has only intensified, and today, oil is the #1 topic on the lips of world leaders, both corporate and governmental. It is affecting the personal decisions of billions of people on a daily basis.
The celebration of this discovery is not just to commemorate the birth date of this staggering economic transition upon our human existence. This is a moment of profound comprehension of the vast social and environmental impact that has transpired from this discovery over the past 150 years. Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers, modern medicine, and virtually every invention since that day in August of 1859, has been either made possible by or heavily influenced by that discovery.
Next August, Titusville will be in the news on a national and international level. The people of Titusville have an enormous and distinct opportunity to embrace this historic event, plan for it, and create a new respect and new benefits for the community at large."
Please join in enthusiastic support of the Titusville Oil 150 Celebration by volunteering to serve on the planning committee. For more information, feel free to contact any of the following members.
Barbara Ives, General Chairperson -
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Lynn Gagnon, Events Chairperson -
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You’re invited to participate in Titusville OIL150 Chalk Walk Contest that will be held Friday, August 28 through Sunday, August 30, as part of oil week in Titusville, PA. The event will take place on Spring Street—from Perry Street to Exchange Place. Pre-registration will be accepted on a first come first serve bases until all drawing areas are full. You may register as an individual or as a 2 person team. There is no registration fee.
CONGRATULATION!!!! WE A...
