Sarnia City Map Poster

About Sarnia

Sarnia is a major port for Great Lakes freighters and oceangoing ships carrying cargoes of grain, petroleum products and dry goods. The city is also an important centre for the oil industry. Petrolia, Ontario was named after Sarnia; it was renamed to "Petrolia" in 1855 when its founder, Samuel Lount arrived there from Sarnia.The name means "Oil City". The original First Nations people had no written language so they drew pictures on rocks depicting their life along the riverbanks where they lived before colonization by Europeans began in the early 1600s with French explorers such as Nicolas Perrot who first mapped out this area which became known as New France or Canada (French: La Nouvelle-France). In 1679 La Salle had his 45-ton barque Le Griffon pulled across the sandbar at St. Clair River by his men to sail into Lake Huron near present day Port Huron, Michigan; he named this new found body of water Lac aux Claies meaning "Lake of Cleats.