Go West

Go West Young Fort Eriean Earl Plato
Go west young men! Well we’re not young anymore but south western Ontario was our destination. We Fort Erieans were up bright and early and arrived at Oil Springs too early to enter the Oil Museum of Canada there. We walked the grounds on yet another beautifully, clear morn. Yes, this is where the first commercial oil well in North America was drilled in 1858. Of the two sites, Petrolia and Oil Springs I prefer Oil Springs especially for its great museum. The curator opened the doors sharply at 10 a.m. but we continued to look at the Jerker Lines. Jerker Lines? .We could hear the gentle creak of the lines. You have to see them to appreciate these wooden rods as they move back and forth helping to pump the oil or should I say “Lambton County, Canada Tea!” This is oil country. A sign said that they are used to relay power from the pump house to the seven oil wells on the museum property. From the excellent 20 minute video in the museum we learned that this Jerker Line System was developed by John Henry Fairbank here in Oil Springs about 150 years ago and is used around the world. That’s Canadian ingenuity, eh! They are still used today on over 500 wells still pumping in the area. We could see Walking Beam Jerker Lines in the wells in the fields near the museum.
I don’t know if Jane Davies, our talented curator at the Fort Erie Museum, has ever been here but I know she would love the spaciousness of this museum. I had viewed the old historical video some ten years ago. This recent one was professionally well done. Oil Well displays, a geology display, steam pump, fossil and mineral collections, oil tools and a cable drill rig model and we were still in the theatre room! The main foyer had an oil work wagon, a spring pole drilling model, early tools, oil samples and uses and for us old Esso users, an Imperial Oil display, pumps and all. Artifacts galore! The oil drill dropped off at the Museum by Howard Hughes, one of the first street lamps, a wooden hand pump they first used to pump oil, the Red Adair suit and for nature lovers, beautiful butterfly collections from around the world, a bird egg collection , and several photo albums that told the more recent history of Oil Springs. We finally left the museum which is located on the original site of the first commercial oil well dug in 1858 by James Miller Williams. Outside we saw the sole remaining kerosene lamp from Oil Springs in 1862 when the main street of Oil Springs was lined for its whole length of one and one-half miles with these lamps! Oil Springs was the first town in the world to achieve this distinction. Another great Canadian historical event!
We were provided with a local road map and drove the periphery of the site from Kelly Road. From Highway 402 take 21 South (Wyoming turnoff) to Oil Springs - look for National Historic Site signs.