Wood River Refinery History Museum

IL 111 and Madison 
Roxana, Illinois
618-255-3718


Admission and parking are free

https://wrrmuseum.org/history-of-museum/

Opened in this location in 1993. 

Established in 1986 by a small group of refinery retirees, the Wood River Refinery History Museum (formerly the Shell History Museum) in 1993 moved into a building complex that once housed research laboratories. The current museum is housed in the old diagnostic center, with three buildings in the complex to be used by the museum in the future for vehicles and bigger displays. 

The building sits in front of one of the several refineries that are in the Wood River/Roxana area. This refinery is the 9th largest in the United States. 

Before touring the building we were encouraged to watch the 15-minute video about the history of the refinery and the work that is done there. 

It is very interesting to see in a display how many products come from the crude oil at the different levels of the refinement process: propane, butane, motor gasoline, benzene, kerosene, jet fuel, furnace oil, diesel fuel, lubricants, and asphalts. 

The museum is full of lots of displays and artifacts including this modified 1924 Chevrolet that was the Marathon Record Holder from 1952-1966.

 And this antique gas pump! 

 There are many historical displays. 

 Each decade has its own display. 

This picture on one display sure brought back very old memories! 

There are many interesting pieces of equipment. 

Test car fuel flow burettes are used to determine fuel economy miles per gallon.

Crude evaluation distilling column is used to determine properties of new crudes. 

 Analytical Balance is used in analytical section of refinery (control) laboratory.  

There are also displays on areas of interest to the refinery such as Safety

 and Advertising. 

 Among the promotional items are these great Marketing Coin Games. 

 And of course there are many displays of mementos. 

These displays include gifts and rewards to employees and retirees. 

This lamp retirement gift haa a directory of employees printed on the shade and a fun base. 

 There is one room dedicated to related toys. 

Some of the toys are for sale. Because of the changing ownership of the refinery they have Shell, Tosco, Union 76, Equilon, and  Phillips 66 items.

Comments:  This museum is manned by retirees and their pride in their work there is very evident.  The men were very friendly and willing to share.  They recommended that we watch the video first and we certainly are glad that we did. 

The museum is well organized and interesting to walk through.  We spent less than an hour there but could have stayed a little longer but we needed to leave. We are glad we went and learned a little about something of which we knew little!

The museum is only open on Wednesdays and Thursdays.