Parker, Pennsylvania

Parker, Pennsylvania. . Parker is the only city in Armstrong County and is located in its extreme northwestern portion. The city was named for Judge John Parker, lead surveyor of Lawrenceburg and founder/owner of Parker's Landing-the two villages combined to create Parker. Today, Parker is known as the "Smallest City in the USA." , The oil boom reached the Parker area in the spring of 1865 on the William E. Robinson farm, just north of the present day City of Parker. Residents were not genuinely excited about oil being struck until 1869 when they realized the importance of the oil fields surrounding the small village. A forest of derricks dotted the land around Parker's Landing and it rapidly became a center of activity. Lawrenceburg, settled in 1819 for the Bear Creek Furnace operators, became a busy village filled with operators and drillers wanting to share in the work and profits. , Nine very successful wells on Stump Creek Island, just north of the city, made Parker's Landing one of the top oil producers. By November 1869, the 1,056 wells in Parker and Lawrenceburg were either completed, producing, or drilling, leading to a period of unprecedented prosperity. , Hundreds of industries sprung up quickly, and Parker's population grew to more than 20,000, with another 5,000 living on boats along the banks of the Allegheny River. Millionaires built massive mansions on the bluff, and houses were built throughout the villages. Every available space was occupied. In the midst of the western Pennsylvania oil boom, the villages of Parker's Landing (along the river) and Lawrenceburg (on the bluff) were incorporated on March 1, 1873 as the City of Parker. , Organized on March 4, 1875, the Parker Oil Exchange was the central trading body in the petroleum fields. It was here that fortunes were made and lost in a day. For several years, the Parker Oil Exchange handled the largest volume of trading in the entire oil region. The boom, however, quickly went bust. , Oil production was dwindling by 1878, with many wells running dry. When the supply was exhausted, the oil boom (and speculators) moved on to the next field. Then, in 1879, a disastrous fire gutted almost the entire waterfront section of the city, wiping out 83 buildings in a single night. Little effort was made to rebuild, so this was the final straw in the city's economic collapse. Parker reached its lowest point in 1880 when homes that cost thousands were sold for mere hundreds. , Over a brief span of 10 years, had grown from a simple village of 1,000 residents, to the heights of a bustling city, then returned to its historic small village size with a population of about 1,000-thus earning Parker its status as the "Smallest City in the USA." , Parker received national attention again in 2014 when a massive ice jam formed along the Allegheny River and caused some flooding. The jam was so massive that it attracted tourists and several news reporters.