Q:
Who discovered the oil sands?
A:
Oil and gas in underground deposits
have to be discovered using methods like seismic exploration
and drilling. Oil sands deposits are usually more obvious.
A sizable part of the Athabasca Oil Sands, for example,
lie right at the surface, and they have been known for as
long as there have been people in the area. The first written
reference to Alberta's oil sands may date as far back as
1719 when a Chipewyan trader named Wa-pu-su or Captain Swan,
brought a sample of "pitch," an old term for tar
or asphalt, to York Factory, a Hudson's Bay Company post
on Hudson Bay. In 1778, the North West Company trader, Peter
Pond also made clear reference to the Athabasca Oil Sands,
as did Sir Alexander Mackenzie in the 1790s. Mackenzie indicated
that Aboriginal people used the tarry bitumen to gum the
seams of their canoes.
In
the 1870s and 1880s a number of scientists, including John
Macoun and Robert Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada,
surveyed the Athabasca Oil Sands and attempted to assess
their potential for development. It was these early surveys
that really alerted Canadians to the potential value of
this natural resource.
The
first commercially successful oil sands plant was in 1967
when Great Canadian Oil Sands first produced synthetic crude
oil. "G.C.O.S." was the forerunner of Suncor Energy,
Oil Sands.
