Pioneer Pipeline

Pioneer Pipeline. . ”My grandfather, Samuel Rice got a job as a watchman after the pipeline was built in 1886. In an emergency he could turn off the valve at either end of the bridge from his house. My mother, Ethel Rice Jenkins, tells how the house was in the wilderness, five miles from the nearest house. To catch the train for school in Mauch Chunk, my uncle and mother had to cross the creaking 365-foot long bridge, which was especially treacherous in winter when covered with ice and snow.” , , Mrs. June Jenkins Hinkle, Hudsondale, Look down river to your right, and you will see the Tidewater Pipeline. This long-distance pipeline carried crude oil 109 miles from western Pennsylvania to refineries in New Jersey. The oil then traveled on to fuel the factories and lubricate the machines of the world's burgeoning industries., The story of the pipeline reflects both the creativity and ruthlessness of American industrialists. It marked an attempt by independent oil companies to compete with oil baron, John D. Rockefeller. They planned to move their oil to market via the pipe and by-pass the railroads, then firmly under Rockefeller's domination., While the pipeline idea succeeded, the oil companies did not. Rockefeller simply dropped his prices, starved out his competition, bought the pipeline, and again raised prices. Extended into Illinois, the line carried an average of 11,000 barrels of oil a day through its two six-inch pipes., No longer used for oil, the line now carries the fiber optics used in modern communication technologies.