Canada’s First Oil Well: The Story of Oil Springs, Ontario
Outside Petrolia, in the quiet village of Oil Springs, stands the birthplace of North America’s commercial oil industry. In 1858, James Miller Williams struck oil while digging for water near Black Creek, launching the continent’s first oil boom a full year before Pennsylvania’s famous Drake Well. This post tells the full story of Canada’s first oil well, the 1862 gusher, the rise of Petrolia, and how to visit the First Commercial Oil Field National Historic Site today.