Oil Museum of Canada, History museum in Oil Springs, Canada

The Oil Museum of Canada opened in July 1960 in a building designed by Forbes & Rutherford of Sarnia, on the land where James Miller Williams dug North America's first commercial oil well in 1858. Inside are petroleum industry artifacts, historic photographs and geological displays; outside stand Canadian drilling rigs, a nineteenth-century oil wagon, original boom-period buildings and a jerker line pumping system demonstration.

The first commercial oil well in North America started here in 1858 and launched the modern petroleum industry. From this point on, extraction techniques improved rapidly and transformed the region's economy.

The museum keeps the souvenirs of the 'foreign drillers' from Oil Springs and Petrolia who travelled the world looking for oil, and its website offers a virtual exhibit telling the stories of the area's early oil figures. Outside stand original buildings from the boom period.

The museum stands on the site of the 1858 Williams well in Oil Springs, with the main building holding the indoor exhibits and the grounds holding the outdoor ones: drilling rigs, a nineteenth-century oil wagon, boom-period buildings and a jerker line pumping demonstration. The building was renovated from 2021 to 2022 and reopened in May 2022, so the indoor galleries are the newer part of a visit.

The oil field here is the oldest still operating in North America and uses some original equipment from the 1800s. These working pumps and structures show how production looked and functioned back then.