Home / Moving Oil Horse and Wagon Days

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Moving Oil: The Horse and Wagon Days

Drilling Techniques

Contributor

Charlie Fairbank and Pat McGee

Map Location

Latitude: 42° 46' 22.634" N
Longitude: 82° 7' 10.855" W

Date

1858-1880s
  • Two horses are harnessed to a cylindrical tank wagon with four wheels. Three men stand behind the wagon and there are oil rigs in the background. An oil tank wagon pulled by a team of horses.
  • A group of men stands on top of a wooden storage tank beside a tank wagon pulled by two horses. There is a three-pole derrick behind them. A team of men pumps oil from wooden storage tanks into tank wagons so that the crude oil can be transported to nearby refineries.
  • A group of men stand on storage tanks behind three teams of horses pulling tank wagons. There is an oil rig covered in wood planks behind them. A team of tank wagons ready to haul crude oil to the refineries.
  • Two teams of horses stand in front of carts loaded with wooden barrels as men add more barrels. There is a large building behind them and "Pepper Well 1866" is written across the photo. Before tank wagons, oil was transported in wooden barrels which were carried in horse-drawn wagons, as shown in this Bothwell, Ontario oil field.
  • Six people sit in a wagon pulled by two horses. They are moving down a road with two ruts for the wheels. There are trees on either side of the road. Horses pulled tank wagons along rough clay roads, similar to this one.

Transporting oil has never been easy and though methods have evolved since Oil Springs’ first oil in 1858, problems continue in Canada to this day.

In the early years of Oil Springs and Petrolia, oil was transported in wooden barrels, each one containing 159 litres (35 Imperial gallons). Horse-drawn wagons and sleds called “stone boats” carried the barrels to the refineries of Oil Springs and Petrolia, and to the railway head at Wyoming, Ontario. 

But as oil production grew, wooden tank wagons replaced the barrels. These tank wagons were made by cutting wooden slats on the bevel, with metal straps holding them together, and placing them on a frame. Wood was an ideal material because the liquid oil would cause it to expand, making it leak-proof. It could easily be repaired anywhere by simply applying oakum made from recycled rope fibers drenched in tar. 

An operator used a hand-pump to transfer the oil from the day storage tank into the wooden tank wagon. It could hold eight barrels and weighed about a tonne. A greater wagon weight would have been impossible for a team of horses, especially since the infamous clay roads gave the horses no solid footing. The struggling horses would sometimes sink so badly operators were forced to abandon the wagons. This is because Oil Springs lies within The Great Enniskillen Swamp, a huge area that covers much of Enniskillen and Brooke Townships. Today, it is drained with a network of underground tiles with a total length of more than 800 km. and drainage ditches line most roads.

In 1862, Oil Springs was transporting crude 21 km. north to the railhead in Wyoming. From there, it was sent east to London and Hamilton for refining. Since the road between Oil Springs and Wyoming was often unusable, pioneers tried to solve the problem with a plank road. Oak planks 10-cm. thick were laid across rails and fastened with spikes.

By 1864, pioneers constructed an impressive 40-km. plank road from Oil Springs northwest to the port city of Sarnia. This gave oilmen a direct market to ship on the Great Lakes and avoid heavy rail fees. This Canadian enterprise greatly helped move Lambton oil to the refineries and markets.