Petro-Tourism: Canada's First Commercial Use of Natural Gas

Abstract

Decades before Abraham Gesner's invention of kerosene and the drilling of Canada's first commercial oil well at Oil Springs in southwest Ontario, natural gas seeping from Silurian aged carbonates was a major tourist attraction at Niagara Falls. The Burning Springs, located upstream from the Horseshoe Falls competed with the spectacular cataracts for the attention of tourists. The gas springs were first discovered in the late 18th Century during the excavation of a mill located along the Niagara River. A few decades later entrepreneurs recognized a commercial opportunity as tourists began to flock to Niagara Falls in the 1820's. For a small fee, gas from the spring that was collected in a barrel, would be ignited, much to the “delight and amazement of everyone”. In order to enhance the mystique of the Burning Springs the owners of the attraction created legends of aboriginal fire worship to rival the burning springs at Delphi, Greece and the Caspian Sea area. During the mid-1800's the Burning Springs was a must see stop for tourists visiting Niagara Falls. Among the curious visitors to Niagara Falls were early geologists, such as Charles Lyell, who recognized that the gas at the Burning Spring likely emanated from “bituminous matter” bedded within fossiliferous carbonates. The Burning Springs was so successful by the 1880's that the owner claimed that he was earning more than $50,000 per year from the enterprise. Soon the gas stopped flowing and the Burning Spring was moved to another location were the attraction was transformed into a wax museum that still featured a burning spring fed by piped natural gas.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90259 ©2016 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 19-22, 2016