Explore Internationally
| Type | Title | Date | Coordinates | Originating Location | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drilling Techniques | Oil Well Supply Company | 1864 |
Latitude: 42° 52' 57.806" N Longitude: 82° 8' 52.656" W |
Petrolia
|
The Oil Well Supply Company, which continues to operate today on Robert Street in Petrolia, was originally founded in 1865 by Hector McKenzie, a machinist who built the first machine shop in Petrolia. |
|
| Story | Charles Nicklos | 1852 to 1939 |
Latitude: 49° 39' 15.786" N Longitude: 21° 9' 34.326" E |
Europe
|
Charles Nicklos was among the first wave of Hard Oilers to answer the advertisement posted by Berheim and McGarvey looking for Canadian oil men to develop the fields of Galicia (modern Poland and Ukraine). |
|
| Artifact |
|
Jacob Perkins |
1915
|
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E |
Europe
|
|
| Artifact |
|
Polish Oilfield |
1937
|
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E |
Europe
|
|
| Artifact |
|
Polish Oilfield |
1937
|
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E |
Europe
|
|
| Artifact |
|
Perkins-Nicklos Engagement |
1909 to 1910
|
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E |
Europe
|
|
| Artifact |
|
Perkins Family in Galicia (Poland and Ukraine) |
1901 to 1903
|
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E |
Europe
|
|
| Artifact |
|
Perkins Family in Petrolia |
1885
|
Latitude: 42° 52' 57.065" N Longitude: 82° 8' 36.974" W |
North America
|
|
| Artifact |
|
Jacob and Jenny Perkins |
1875
|
Latitude: 42° 52' 57.065" N Longitude: 82° 8' 36.974" W |
North America
|
|
| Story | George and Richard Fair | 1857 to 1925 |
Latitude: 39° 3' 24.685" S Longitude: 174° 1' 23.459" E |
Australia
|
George Fair was born in 1858 and raised in the oil patch of Lambton County surrounded by brothers who were all interested in the oil business. Many of the boys remained single in their early twenties and were eager to achieve new heights in the oil industry. |
|
| Story | Jacob Perkins | 1854 to 1917 |
Latitude: 49° 40' 42.553" N Longitude: 22° 2' 48.851" E |
Europe
|
Jacob Perkins, who is counted among the most successful of the International Drillers, would progress from the shaggy, awkward-looking man shown in his wedding photo in 1876 to one of the most prominent oil producers in Galicia (modern-day Poland). |
|
| Story | Lottie (Robinson) Cole | 1885 to 1963 |
Latitude: 9° 49' 0.196" N Longitude: 70° 56' 10.86" W |
Venezuela
|
It wasn’t just men who travel abroad from Lambton County, a number of women also left for international adventure. Lottie Robinson was born in Oil Springs in 1886. In 1910 she married a local man named Bill Cole. Bill Cole was an International Driller. |
|
| Story | James Gardner Boyd | 1861 to 1929 |
Latitude: 20° 33' 40.565" S Longitude: 164° 15' 56.916" E |
Australia
|
“Just a line to let you know that old Pop has arrived safely back to the Island,” wrote International Driller James Boyd in a letter home to his family from New Caledonia, “[I’m] taking a fishing rod with me to try and catch some fine fish in the little streams below our camps.” |
|
| Story | Martin J. Woodward | 1849 to 1912 |
Latitude: 37° 40' 41.92" N Longitude: 95° 27' 24.376" W |
Borneo
|
The International Drillers contributed to many different aspects of opening oil fields and were not solely focused on drilling oil wells. M.J. Woodward was responsible for building the first refinery on the island of Borneo which was also the largest refinery in the world, at the time. |
|
| Drilling Techniques | Canadian Oil Companies Ltd | 1901 to 2015 |
Latitude: 42° 53' 43.703" N Longitude: 82° 8' 43.134" W |
After the Imperial Oil Refinery moved from Petrolia to Sarnia in 1898, a few local businessmen were determined that there should be a refinery in Petrolia and in 1901 the Canadian Oil Refining Company was incorporated, with a daily capacity of 1,600 barrels of crude oil. |
||
| Drilling Techniques | Imperial Oil Company | 1879 to 2015 |
Latitude: 42° 53' 31.373" N Longitude: 82° 8' 50.863" W |
Standard Oil was the big player in North America and its popularity in the United States was causing problems for Canadians. Understanding the need to work together, 16 Canadians banded together to form the Imperial Oil Company in 1880, with Jacob Englehart as the driving force. |
||
| Drilling Techniques | Early Refining | 1856 to 1879 |
Latitude: 42° 46' 22.588" N Longitude: 82° 7' 16.18" W |
Crude oil consists of a mixture of many different compounds and when the oil is heated, the molecules of each of these compounds separate based on their weight, with lubricating oil and asphalt sinking to the bottom, kerosene in the middle, and gasoline rising to the top. |
||
| Story | Charles Warren | 1902 to 1987 |
Latitude: 31° 56' 21.952" N Longitude: 49° 18' 13.37" E |
Iran
|
Charles Warren grew up in Haldimand County where he learned the drilling trade while working as a water boy on gas rigs in the area. In 1923, Charles Warren and his brother Bob signed a contract with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to drill for oil in Persia. |
|
| Story | Arthur Lambert | 1871 to 1953 |
Latitude: 3° 6' 47.794" S Longitude: 129° 28' 32.081" E |
Trinidad
|
A lengthy article written in the Windsor Daily Star in 1938 described Arthur Lambert as "the best known and most widely-travelled oil driller that ever represented the Petrolia clan". |
|
| Story | Transportation and Communication | 1849 to 1950 |
Latitude: 15° 52' 4.663" N Longitude: 92° 38' 59.302" W |
Mexico
|
Transportation and communication are two things that are easily taken for granted in our modern age. The internet allows for nearly instantaneous communication with anyone in the world and a network of airports makes no location more than a day’s travel. |