Oil Museum of Canada

National Historic Site at the place where commercial oil began in North America

The Oil Museum of Canada sits a short drive south of Petrolia, on the site of James Miller Williams's 1858 well — North America's first commercial oil well. It's a National Historic Site, with original equipment, restored working derricks, and exhibits on the international diaspora of Petrolia oilmen.

Outside, an active jerker-line pump system — a 19th-century technology unique to this field — still draws oil from shallow wells, using rocker arms connected by long wooden rods. It's the only place in the world this technique still operates commercially.

things to do sight
A story
The first commercial oil well in North America was dug here in 1858 — a year before Drake's well in Pennsylvania, though Drake's gets the textbook credit because he used a drill rather than a shovel. The Petrolia drillers fanned out from here in the late 19th century to open oil fields in Persia, Borneo, Romania, and Venezuela.