The Petrolia Discovery (Petrolia, Ontario)

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The Petrolia Discovery gives to its audiences a deeper appreciation of those Canadian pioneers who struggled to understand and control a resource but were too late to stop it from slipping through their fingers. The visitor will find here the workshop and training ground of a body of men who, 120 years ago, went into the world to found what would become one of the world's biggest industries, but whose story is largely untold or forgotten...

Today, oil is still pumped in the Oil Springs and Petrolia fields by central power plants, some using distinctive jerker rods which reach out to each well just as they did over 100 years ago. The Petrolia Discovery is an operational historic oilfield located on 60 acres of this land in Lambton County's historic Oil Heritage Disctrict, which has been set aside as a living museum and a testament to Canada's oil pioneers. It contains museum-style exhibits, detailing the major historic contributions of these extrordinary men., alongside an ancient but still fully-functional oilfield where the visitor can see crude oil being drawn from the ground before their very eyes, exactly as it was being done in the 1800s.

Visitors to the Petrolia Discovery experience a fascinating, one-of-a-kind glimpse into the early days of the world's oil boom. From the first, hand-dug wells of the 1850s, to the great refineries and machine shops which abounded at the turn of the century, Petrolia's Oil Heritage runs old and deep as the wells themselves. Guests not only take in historical displays and informative movies, but get a chance to see an authentic 1860s oilfield in action.