There are few sites in the world that maintain the history of oil like the Fairbank Houses and the Canadian Petroleum Museum in Oil Springs.
This is the considered opinion of James Douet, who wrote a topic published in 2020 on the history of the oil industry for the International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage.
“It still works as it did in the 1850s,” the Barcelona, Spain-based commercial archaeologist said of oil production in the ground after visiting the National Historic Site with a delegation of about 30 others on Aug. 27.
“In fact, it’s a common delight to see such an original site in action,” he said.
The delegation, which included oil experts, historians and curators from Poland, Scotland, Spain, Texas, Pennsylvania and parts of Canada, had originally planned to make a stopover at the historic site, where oil was first discovered in North America in 1858, two years ago. .
Delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, they gathered for a conference and three-day trip that included a discussion of the findings of Douet’s Fairbank oilfield-funded study.
One of the discoveries was the global scarcity of sites that preserve the history of oil, despite the disproportionate impact the industry has had on the world, Douet said.
“And the main conclusion is that this position is practically the most productive original oil production site in the world,” he said.
Lambton County and Fairbank Oil have made an unsuccessful joint bid for the designation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 2017.
The site is not on Canada’s provisional list of candidates, and Canadian officials at the time said the site “did not sufficiently demonstrate its success and foreign influence,” Lambton County officials reported.
With Douet’s report now shared internationally, it is planned to resubmit it for your attention at the next session, scheduled for 2025, Lambton’s director general of cultural services, Andrew Meyer, said.
A Polish delegation to the Lambton convention has proposed making a joint offer that includes the Lambton and Poland sites to increase the chances of success, he said.
“We are very open to this discussion and excited to continue this partnership,” Meyer said, noting that the procedure can take up to 3 years.
“Really, this discussion is helping us prepare and anticipate partnerships that can solidify our candidacy,” he said of the convention and tour.
The conservation committee advises on UNESCO World Heritage designations, Fairbank Oil’s Pat McGee said in a press release.
“The history of Oil Springs is beyond a Lambton story or even a Canadian story,” he said. “It’s an idea that has foreign meaning. “
Most likely, the next steps will be the creation of an organization trained with poles to talk about how to move things forward and prepare for the new acceptance of the presentations, Douet said.
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