Volunteers restoring oil heritage model at Petrolia Discovery

A model of Canadian oil pioneering ingenuity is being brought back to life by volunteers at the Petrolia Discovery oil heritage site.

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The crew is continuing work that began last summer to restore the Petrolia site’s Canadian Rig, a model of a drilling rig developed in the late 1800s oil fields of Lambton County and eventually taken around the world by local drillers hired to open oil fields overseas.

“It’s long overdue for a refresh,” said Liz Welsh, chairperson of the Petrolia Discovery.

The oil heritage site which is run by volunteers is a working oil field that also includes several historic models and displays, including the Canadian Rig.

The rig model is made mostly of wood and pieces have deteriorated over the many years it has been at the site.

“The structure itself needed restoration so people could step up into it again,” Welsh said. “The platform was quite rotten.”

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Initially, the plan was to just restore the platform and basic structure but the approximately eight volunteers have also been working to restore the rig’s interior mechanisms, she said.

Petrolia’s Oil Well Supply Company manufactured and sold the Canadian Rigs using a pole-tool drilling method developed by oil pioneer William H. McGarvey and shipped them to oil fields around the world.

The rigs were assembled on sled-like runners so they could be pulled into place in oil fields by teams of horses.

“It’s been sitting in bad shape for multiple years,” said Mark Cole, one of the volunteers on the project.

The volunteers spend a few hours twice a week on the project. They worked until November last year.

The aim is to have the rig available for the public to visit again by the end of the year, he said.

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The rig’s main “walking beam” that was used to raise and lower a metal bit that pounded its way into the ground, is being restored in a shed at the site with plans to re-install it in the coming weeks.

Pole-tool drilling was used in the days “long before rotary drills came into play,” Cole said.

Wooden drive wheels, that would have originally been powered by a steam engine, have been rebuilt and installed back on the rig.

“The idea was to use as much as we could” of the original model, Cole said. “We’re just trying to simulate what the old well would have looked like.”

Using a set of drawings created for the project, the volunteers have been making adjustments on the fly as they remove and repair pieces of the rig.

“Those guys were geniuses at trying to get oil out of the ground,” Cole said about the oil pioneers who came up with the technology more than a century ago.

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Welsh said the Discovery received about $5,800 from Lambton County’s Creative County grant program in 2023.

It’s not known yet how much the restoration project will end up costing.

Fortunately, several suppliers have offered discounts or even donations when volunteers have bought supplies for the project, Welsh said.

A few years ago, another group of volunteers restored the site’s Fitzgerald Rig.

Guided tours of the Petrolia Discover are being offered this summer by donation. The foundation hired three summer students with the help of a Young Canada Works grant, said board member Eric Curragh.

“We get about a dozen tours a week,” said guide Ryan Shaw.

It’s open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm, in July and August, and will be open weekends in September, he said.

The summer students have also been making improvements to the historical buildings at the site.

“They’re doing incredible stuff,” Welsh said.

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@ObserverPaulM

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