Reece’s Corners: This strategic location at the junction of highways 402, 7, and 21 was a stage coach stop as early as 1848 and it is still a transportation hub.
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Wyoming: Like the name of the western US state, Wyoming means ‘great plain.’ It was founded about 1856 by settlers from Pennsylvania. Their own village of Wyoming had been destroyed in the early Indian wars. The large plain in Lambton County and the area’s oil resource are here for the same reason: millions of years ago much of the region was covered by a salt sea. When the sea receded, a fertile plain, which is now productive farmland, remained. Deep underground, the remains of microscopic plant and animal life were compressed into petroleum and natural gas. Although oil was never found in Wyoming the village became a railway shipping centre for oil from Petrolia and Oil Springs. In 1864, six oil refineries were located here and many locals were teamsters who transported oil by horse and wagon to the busy railhead. By the late 1890s when local oil activity had slowed, Wyoming was an important commercial and social centre for the surrounding farm community.
There were at least 5 weekly newspapers published between 1869 and 1936. The first published paper was called the Wyoming News Letter and Petroleum Advertiser. Since most of the advertisers were from Petrolia the paper was moved there in 1870 and was the beginning for what then became the Advertiser Topic and currently Petrolia Topic.
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Oil City: The important name obscures Oil City’s minor role in the development of the petroleum industry. In 1852, Charles Tripp owned the land where Oil City was eventually built. The property alternated between government control and ownership by oil speculators after Tripp was forced to give it up because of financial difficulties. In 1873, the Canada Southern Railway constructed a line just north of the present village. Stores, a grain warehouse, blacksmith shops, a hotel and a stave mill were all built to capitalize on the anticipated boom but great prominence was never achieved. The oil bearing formations by-passed Oil City so no commercial production was possible. The lumber business slowed as the surrounding forest was depleted and heavy industry preferred the St. Clair River shoreline. Oil City has become a residential community only.
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St. Clair Township: Brigden: Brigden started out as a lumber town in the 1870s. The Canada Southern Railway extended a line from St. Thomas to Courtright with intentions of linking up with US railways to Chicago. Brigden was one of the villages that was built along the right of way. Much of the lumber from Brigden was used by shipbuilders in Marine City, Michigan and canal boat builders in Buffalo. West of Brigden oil production is evident as pump jacks and storage tanks appear on both sides of the highway. Further west, additional pumping units, storage and separation tanks can be seen. Natural gas is being drilled for and imported gas from Alberta is stored in vast underground ‘pools.’
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Courtright: The village was named after Milton Courtright, the president of the Canada Southern Railway; it has always been synonymous with ships and their related industries.
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Mooretown: Mooretown’s association with the oil industry began in 1862 when Josiah Smith built an oil refinery here. Crude was teamed from Oil Springs by wagon or sleigh and stored in underground tanks near the river. The oil was pumped to the refinery at the corner of Napoleon St and the river road as needed. Plans were made to construct a plank road from Mooretown to Oil Springs but it never materialized. The refinery closed in 1867 when the oil boom in Oil Springs declined.
“The Town of Moore was named by Sir John Colborne in 1829 to honour Sir John Moore, the British general killed in Spain in 1809 at the Battle of Corunna” (Scott, 184.)
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St. Clair River: The river has played an important role in the development of the petroleum and chemical industries since oil was first commercially exploited in 1858. At times, oil was barreled in Oil Springs and floated down Black Creek and the Sydenham River to avoid the difficult land route. Sailing ships would pick up and transport the oil to ports on the Great Lakes and to England. After Imperial Oil built its refinery in Sarnia in 1899, barges and then tankers began to transport crude oil from Ohio to Sarnia. When Alberta’s Leduc oilfield was discovered in 1947, Imperial built three, 200 metre tankers to carry oil from the pipeline terminus at Superior, Wisconsin to Sarnia. In 1953, the oil pipeline was extended to Sarnia and the tankers were sold. The river also provides vast quantities of fresh water for chemical processes and cooling. The local industrial society as well as the plants monitor for leaks and spills from ships and or the Chemical Valley plants in order to protect the environment.
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