Some of the more colorful names that have been used include cannel coal, boghead coal, alum shale, stellarite, albertite, kerosene shale, bituminite, gas coal, algal coal, wollongite, schistes bitumineux, torbanite, kukersite, and others.
The first commercial development occurred when a single vein of albertite, a solid hydrocarbon cutting across the oil-shale deposits, was mined from 1863 to 1874.
Records of the Mechanics' Institute show they were still acquiring geological specimens for their museum as late as 1881 when the Annual Report listed donations of
albertite, shale containing fish, antimony, gypsum and coal (Mechanics' Institute, 1880-81 Annual Report, p.