Oil Exploration on Manitoulin Island
If you're anything like me, you raise an eyebrow when you learn that oil companies once believed that Manitoulin Island was going to be the location of the next great oil and gas reserve. So much so, they were willing to commit millions of dollars and employ large numbers of men in the pursuit of this lucrative resource on a remote Northern Ontario island as far back as the mid-nineteenth century.
Their interest was sparked in 1847 when the Geological Survey of Canada noted the presence of petroleum-bearing shale on Manitoulin Island. Petroleum companies at that time were busy exploring for oil and gas in southern Ontario and successes there made them hungry for more. When they caught wind of the potential for oil on the island, their ambitions started to drift north.
