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==History== [[File:Haymaker Gas Well in Murrysville April 2016.jpg|thumb|The approximate site where the Haymaker brothers struck natural gas in Murrysville on November 3, 1878]] The Haymaker Gas Well in Murrysville was the nation's first commercial natural gas well. For some time, it remained the largest commercial gas well in the world.<ref name="HaymakerGasWell">{{cite web |title=Murrysville Gas Well Historical Marker |url=http://www.explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=436 |website=ExplorePAHistory.com |access-date=25 January 2020}}</ref> The well was drilled in 1878, and until a gas pipe line was attached to the well in 1883, approximately 35 million cubic feet of gas a day was released into the atmosphere, resulting in a total of about '''60 billion''' cubic feet of [[natural gas]] released into the atmosphere from this single site<ref>{{Cite book |last=Muller |first=Edward K. |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/pur1.32754066155007 |title=Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania : an inventory of historic engineering and industrial sites |publisher=National Park Service |year=1994 |location=Washington, DC |pages=323 |language=en |access-date=February 25, 2024}}</ref> Murrysville was described in the first half of the 20th century as being "the center of a district dotted with gas wells, the first of which was bored in 1878; wild speculation in leases precipitated the open conflict known as the 'Haymaker Riots,' named for the speculator killed in one of them."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pennsylvania: A Guide to the Keystone State|last=Federal Writers' Project|date=1940|publisher=Oxford University Press|edition=1st|page=394|location=New York}}</ref> Since 1933, Murrysville has had a "tree sign" spelling out the word [https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=murrysville&ie=UTF8&z=18&ll=40.423208,-79.696503&spn=0.002695,0.007693&t=k&om=1 "Murrysville"]. The trees were landscaped to grow and form the letters by local [[Scouting in Pennsylvania|Boy Scouts]]. The sign is situated on a large hill as one enters the Municipality from the Murrysville–Monroeville border, near U.S. Route 22. In 1947, the sign was featured in "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" as the world's largest arboreal sign.<ref name="RipleysSign">{{cite news| url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05157/516504.stm | work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | title=Murrysville landmark is fading from view | first=Caitlin | last=Cleary | date=2005-06-06}}</ref> (It is no longer the world's largest). The "Y" in the Murrysville sign points to the Haymaker Gas Well. In 1977, Murrysville was designated the "Gateway to Westmoreland County" by Mayor Walt Dollman in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce. In 2012, community leaders upgraded sign and landscaping elaborately at the main entrance at the Allegheny / Westmoreland border featuring this designation. As is shown at the introduction of this page, the Gateway designation is featured on the official Seal of the Municipality. Murrysville became a [[home rule municipality (Pennsylvania)|home rule municipality]] in August 1976, when its electorate voted for a Charter designating it a Municipality.<ref>[https://www.census.gov/popest/geographic/boundary_changes/index.html Population Estimates Boundary Changes] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060206063031/http://www.census.gov/popest/geographic/boundary_changes/index.html |date=2006-02-06 }}, [[United States Census Bureau]], 2007-07-01. Accessed 2008-11-06.</ref>
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