Historic site visitorship on the rise

The number of visitors touring a unique historic site that pays tribute to Canada’s oil and gas history in Turner Valley is on the rise. Catherine Whalley, Alberta Culture and Tourism executive director of historic sites and museums, said the Turner Valley Gas Plant had close to 900 visitors throughout the summer season, representing an increase over last summer of about 50 people. The facility was open on weekends and holiday Mondays. “That’s promising,” said Whalley last week. “I felt the visitor numbers were actually quite gratifying. The Turner Valley Oilfield Society was very supportive this year and, in particular, organized a couple of special tours for local municipal councils and business owners to visit the site.” While the number of visitors touring through the various buildings along the Sheep River continues to increase, whether the site will be open for tours next year is unknown. “At this point in time I have to say that our decision and confirmation of what the coming years’ operations are is going to be dependent on budget allocations,” said Whalley. While the future of budget money to continue the tours is unclear, Whalley said environmental remediation and management of the site remains a priority for the government. “There is money confirmed for that ongoing into the future and we continue to take that environmental management very seriously,” she said. “To date, since we took the site over in 1988, we have invested around $20 million including a ground water containment system, flood containment berm, re-abandonment of Dingman #2 and ongoing work to meet or exceed the environmental management standards.” In its 2018-19 budget, the Province approved $525,000 for ongoing remediation and environmental management work at the site, Whalley said. The last provincial money allocated towards non-environmental site improvements was before the 2014 centennial celebration of Dingman well No. 1 that saw funds go into restoring and renovating the historical lab office, an administrative office and public washrooms, and the addition of historical information in the light plant. Among supporters of the historic site is Calgarian Walt DeBoni, who helped organize a tour of the gas plant as one of the 72 events over 11 days for Historic Calgary Week. The tour saw more than 80 visitors, he said. “I think that it’s a facility that needs more publicity,” he said. “It’s such a key part of our history that I think every Albertan should have the opportunity to visit the place and understand why it’s important.” DeBoni, who worked 45 years in the oil and gas industry, said he’s attended about five tours at the gas plant where he’s learned about the people involved, activities that took place over the years and toured the well site and plant facilities. “It’s a fabulous tour just seeing how the whole site progressed from the original drilling of the first well with some of the most fundamental and basic equipment in 1913 and 1914 to how, over the years, they continued to build various aspects of the plant to handle the production up to the 1980s,” he said. The Turner Valley Oilfield Society plays a large role in the success of the historic site, having recently completed construction on the Jack Bowman Interpretive Trail, in honour of a former plant superintendent, boasting large panels with historic information and pictures overlooking the gas plant. Chair Al Lambden said society members created a script for the tour guides to use this summer and some members either acted as tour guides or participated with them on some of last summer’s tours. In July, the society invited local town councillors and business owners to tour the site with about 20 in attendance, said Lambden. “It helps the local businesses with tourism and it also educates a little bit more about the plant so they can sponsor it,” he said. Lambden said Alberta Culture and Tourism provided tour pamphlets to local businesses to distribute to their customers to provide more information on the historic site. “That was a good way to promote the tours,” he said. “We want to continue working with Alberta Culture to make the tours the best we can.”