John Robinson, the York New Salem, who e-mailed with several queries reminded me of one of his borough's most interesting stories.
In the early 1900s, some folks discovered oil in their well water.
Some conjectured that New Salem might be sitting on a pool of black gold... .
Workers set up a rig and drilled to the depth of about 900 feet before money gave out and only mud and more mud is discovered.
"Some of our people still have the suspicion," a New Salem history states, "that the wells were deliberately contaminated to get people to invest in the project, but we will never know."
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