Western Virginia's oil and gas were first discovered in the 1700s in the Kanawha and Little Kanawha river valleys. In the early 1800s, the Ruffner family found oil and gas while drilling for salt near the Kanawha River. Other families, like the Lemons and Creels, also discovered oil using salt drilling tools.

By 1819, George Lemon was producing oil near the Hughes River. In 1857, a train station called Petroleum was built near a major oil discovery. In 1859, Dr. R. W. Hazlett and others drilled for oil in the area.

A key discovery came when Samuel D. Karnes hit oil in an old salt well. "Cass" Rathbone drilled a well at Burning Springs in Wirt County, producing 200 barrels of oil, making it one of the first major oil wells in the U.S., alongside the Drake well in Pennsylvania.