Oil heritage experts from around the world are soon to be learning about Oil Springs.
The good news is that an international study is underway on oil heritage with an eye to UNESCO World Heritage, and Oil Springs is included.
The thematic study by The International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage (TICCIH) is to be published in late summer or early fall and an international conference will follow next spring.
Oil Springs is to be one of the case studies from around the globe included in the study. The focus of the case study is on the oil heritage that is physically here at Fairbank Oil Fields and the Oil Museum of Canada, as well as their significance.
Fairbank Oil has 700 inventoried fixed artifacts, not including many thousand more moving parts. The Oil Museum of Canada has more than 9,000 artifacts including the letters and exotic items brought back by Lambton’s International Drillers (formerly known as the Foreign Drillers).
Starting in 1873, the highly skilled drillers of Oil Springs and Petrolia used the Canadian pole-drilling method in 86 countries, speeding the global development of oil.
Stay tuned for more on the study in the fall!