Charles Nelson Tripp was a pioneering geologist and bitumen businessman in Ontario.

Charles Tripp and his brother, Henry Tripp, operated the first bitumen/asphalt

Asphalt

Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

 business in Enniskillen Township

Enniskillen, Ontario

Township of Enniskillen is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located within Lambton County. It is located at the intersection of Highway 21 and Rokeby Line....

, Lambton County, Ontario

Lambton County, Ontario

Lambton County is a census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. The county is located in Southwestern Ontario. It is bordered on the north by Lake Huron, which flows into the St. Clair River, the county's western border and part of the Canada-United States border. To the south is Lake...

, in the early 1850s. The business failed due to the high transportation costs, production difficulties, and lack of capital. Some of his lands were purchased by James Miller Williams

James Miller Williams

James Miller Williams was a businessman and political figure in Ontario, Canada. He represented Hamilton in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1867 to 1879. He is also commonly viewed as the father of the petroleum industry in Canada.He was born in 1818 in Camden, New Jersey, and apprenticed...

 who then developed North America's first commercial oil well.

In 2008, Canada Post

Canada Post stamp releases (2005-2009)

In the latter half of the decade, Canada Post continued to issue a large number of stamps with different designs and themes. One of the key changes in the decade was that Canada Post issued series of stamps on a yearly basis. An example is the 400th Anniversary of the French Settlement in North...

issued a commemorative postage stamp featuring portraints of Tripp and Williams.