An interesting anniversary Burning Springs was the destination of thousands of fortune seekers during the 1860s following the discovery of oil. In August of 1860 the "town" had fewer than 20 permanent residents. Six months later, over 6,000 fortune seekers crowded into the town. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil was produced there between 1860 and 1870. During the Civil War, Confederate cavalrymen, under the command of General William E. Jones, burned the town to the ground on May 9, 1863, along with all the oil in the town's storage tanks. 100,000 barrels of oil were ignited, and the light from the fire was clearly visible in the night sky as far away as Parkersburg, 42 miles away. This is from http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/wv/history.html