Burning Springs Complex, also known as the Rathbone and Karns Wells, is a national historic district

Historic district (United States)

In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...

 located at Burning Springs

Burning Springs, West Virginia

Burning Springs is an unincorporated town in Wirt County, West Virginia, USA. It takes its name from the natural gas which bubbled up through the spring and would burn when lit....

, Wirt County, West Virginia

Wirt County, West Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 5,873 people, 2,284 households, and 1,699 families residing in the county. The population density was 25 people per square mile . There were 3,266 housing units at an average density of 14 per square mile...

. It encompasses one contributing building and three contributing sites. It was the site of the world's second great oil field, springing up only months after the Drake Well

Drake Well

The Drake Well is a deep oil well in Cherrytree Township, Venango County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The well is the centerpiece of the Drake Well Museum located south of Titusville....

 in Pennsylvania. During the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, it was destroyed by General William E. Jones

William E. Jones

William Edmondson Jones, known as Grumble Jones, was a planter, a career United States Army officer, and a Confederate cavalry general, killed in the Battle of Piedmont in the American Civil War.-Early life:...

 on May 9, 1863.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

in 1971.