by Jean Turnbull Elford in Canada West’s Last Frontier (1982) Point Edward, Lambton’s largest incorporated village, placed where Lake Huron empties into the River St. Clair, made its way into recorded history earlier than any other part of Lambton. The first written account comes from the pen of Father Hennepin [...]
by Phil Egan - Special to The Sarnia Journal (2015) In his 1961 book, A History of the Chemical Industry in Lambton County, R.W. Ford describes the Bushnell Refinery, built in 1871, as the “first of Sarnia’s refineries.” Records indicate, however, that this information is not correct. Sarnia’s earliest refinery [...]
Courtesy of Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership (2015) Imperial Oil Products & Chemicals Division has deep roots in Lambton County. Its corporate history dates to September 8, 1880, when 16 Canadians involved in the early oil industry combined their resources to form the Imperial Oil Company. The original head office was [...]
Synopsis courtesy of Shell (2015) Shell’s Sarnia Manufacturing Centre is located on the St. Clair Parkway, about ten kilometres south of Sarnia between Froomfield and Corunna. The plant employees 350 full-time employees and has a capacity of 75,000 barrels of crude oil daily. Its products include gasoline, distillates, liquid petroleum [...]
by Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer (2009) A Sarnia war hero who became a crusader for peace has died. Joe Egan, who was also a noted community activist and businessperson, was 87. A graduate of Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School, Egan volunteered for duty with the Royal Canadian [...]
by Paul Morden for the Sarnia Observer (2014) Sarnia was actually Canada’s second, or perhaps even third, Chemical Valley. By 1914, the year Sarnia became a city, its Imperial Oil refinery employed 1,200 workers, covered nearly 110 acres on the St. Clair River and manufactured products ranging from kerosene to [...]
by Scott Stephenson for the Sarnia Observer (2003) The last big construction boom in the Chemical Valley occurred almost 30 years ago [Editor’s Note-story written in 2003], fueled by the creation of Petrosar. As the country moved out of the 1960s and into the 1970s, Sarnia’s petrochemical industry was ailing. [...]
by Paul Morden for the Sarnia Observer (2014) If it weren’t for an American-born engineer who earned the nickname “minister of everything” during his long career in Canadian politics, Sarnia might never have become home to the country’s Chemical Valley. Chosen by Prime Minister Mackenzie King to lead efforts to [...]
