Petroleum is the second most abundant liquid on earth. Petroleum use as a fuel, medicine, and sealant is documented in early societies around the globe including the ancient and accomplished Indigenous civilizations of the Americas; the Incas, the Mayans and the Aztecs.

Indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States used petroleum products for many purposes ranging from skin care and wound treatment, to sealants for canoes long before the arrival of European people. Wooden posts used to stabilize the sides of oil pits in the traditional lands of the Lenape, Susquehannock, Shawnee and Iroquois people (Pennsylvania); have been carbon dated to the year 1415 C.E., but experts believe the oil pits in that area have been in use for much longer.

In the northeastern states and California, the lowest grade of crude oil, asphalt, was used to waterproof items such as pottery and baskets, as an adhesive for arrow heads and to secure shells inlaid into wood, bone or stone carvings.

Discovering oil wasn’t always something to celebrate. Up until the late 1800s, settlers in the Canadian and American West dug wells to locate water or brine (a source of salt). They were disappointed when they struck oil. This changed with the invention of the kerosene lamp in 1854, an invention that created the first large-scale demand for petroleum.

Although natural gas was used in some areas, it was mostly coal gas that provided the ‘gas light’ in Canadian and American cities in the 1800s.

• Coal was heated in a closed vessel to produce a flammable mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane.
• Coal gas first lit the streets of London, England in 1807, Montreal in 1836, and Toronto in 1841. The first gas-powered streetlights in B.C. were installed on Yates Street in Victoria on September 28, 1862.

In Canada and the United States, people tapped safer, cleaner-burning natural gas for lighting as early as 1821 when it was piped through hollow logs to Fredonia, New York. However, natural gas was not a serious commodity until the end of the 1800s when improved drilling techniques and cast-iron pipes were developed.

High demand for improved lighting also led directly to the first widespread use of crude oil. By the 1850s, the best available lamp oil made from whale blubber, was selling for $2.50 U.S. per gallon, or 66 cents per litre – a lot of money in those days. That would be approximately $70 U.S. per gallon in today’s terms! Growing demand for this oil decimated whale populations, putting some species at risk of extinction.

Did you know…petroleum was used as a medicine for treating gout, as a salve, a tonic, and mosquito repellant!