Editing Bitumen (section)

=== Canada ===
{{See also | Bitumount | History of the petroleum industry in Canada (oil sands and heavy oil)}}
Canada has the world's largest deposit of natural bitumen in the [[Athabasca oil sands]], and Canadian [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] along the [[Athabasca River]] had long used it to waterproof their canoes. In 1719, a [[Cree]] named Wa-Pa-Su brought a sample for trade to [[Henry Kelsey]] of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]], who was the first recorded European to see it. However, it wasn't until 1787 that fur trader and explorer [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander MacKenzie]] saw the Athabasca oil sands and said, "At about 24 miles from the fork (of the Athabasca and Clearwater Rivers) are some bituminous fountains into which a pole of 20 feet long may be inserted without the least resistance."<ref name=oilsandfacts/>

The value of the deposit was obvious from the start, but the means of extracting the bitumen was not. The nearest town, [[Fort McMurray, Alberta]], was a small fur trading post, other markets were far away, and transportation costs were too high to ship the raw bituminous sand for paving. In 1915, Sidney Ells of the Federal Mines Branch experimented with separation techniques and used the product to pave 600 feet of road in [[Edmonton]], Alberta. Other roads in Alberta were paved with material extracted from oil sands, but it was generally not economic. During the 1920s [[Karl Clark (chemist)|Dr. Karl A. Clark]] of the [[Alberta Research Council]] patented a hot water oil separation process and entrepreneur Robert C. Fitzsimmons<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.canadianpetroleumhalloffame.ca/robert-fitzsimmons.html | title = Robert C. Fitzsimmons (1881–1971) | year = 2010 | publisher = Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame | access-date = 20 January 2016}}</ref> built the [[Bitumount]] oil separation plant, which between 1925 and 1958 produced up to {{convert|300|oilbbl|sigfig=1}} per day of bitumen using Dr. Clark's method. Most of the bitumen was used for waterproofing roofs, but other uses included fuels, lubrication oils, printers ink, medicines, rust- and acid-proof paints, fireproof roofing, street paving, patent leather, and fence post preservatives.<ref name = oilsandfacts/> Eventually Fitzsimmons ran out of money and the plant was taken over by the Alberta government. Today the Bitumount plant is a [[Provincial historic sites of Alberta|Provincial Historic Site]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.history.alberta.ca/energyheritage/bitumount/default.aspx | title = Bitumount | year = 2016 | publisher = Government of Alberta | access-date = 20 January 2016}}</ref>