A paved pathway overlooking the Sheep River valley in Turner Valley is now an educational experience for trail users. The Turner Valley Oilfield Society recently completed the Jack Bowman Interpretive Trail honouring the former gas plant superintendent and commemorating the discovery of oil in 1914 that helped start the development of the oil and gas industry in Alberta. The trail offers fencing, benches, picnic tables and large interpretive signs containing historical facts about the area’s oil and gas industry at three sites overlooking the Turner Valley Gas Plant near the town’s Royalite Way subdivision. Construction began late last summer. The trail is a joint initiative between the Turner Valley Oilfields Society and Town of Turner Valley. “It’s great to see a project that you work at for-two-and-a-half years and you have a product that’s extremely viable and a model that they could use anywhere else on a public trail,” said project leader Rod Mumby, director of the Turner Valley Oilfield Society. Mumby said the project was more work than he anticipated almost three years ago. “You don’t know all the little things that you need to do to make it a success and all the partnerships,” he said. “You’ve got to make sure that all your partners have an equal say. We accomplished more than what we set out to do.” For instance, Mumby said he and Ron McLaren, who spearheaded the project and is a former employee at the gas plant, wrote the text for the interpretative signs, but decided to enlist some help. Signs were used from the Glenbow Museum archives in Calgary. They began with Calgary historian David Finch, who made some changes, and then a professor at the Mount Royal University to check the facts for accuracy. “Every time someone that was smarter than we were looked at it then it got better,” he said. “All our partners were fantastic to work with - the Town of TV, parks and recreation board, Turner Valley Oilfield Society, golf course, the people on the committee and the people who donated money to it. This whole project wasn’t even feasible without the great partnerships.” The more than $40,000 project was designed to tell the story of the Turner Valley oilfield, said McLaren. “The interpretive signs are like a storyboard,” he said. “Each sign has a story and picture on it. It really is a bit of a photographic history as well as telling the story of the Turner Valley oilfield and its contributors over the years.” The gas plant was the first petroleum processing facility west of Ontario. It operated on the banks of the Sheep River before closing in 1985 and now serves as a designated federal and provincial historic site. Bowman served as the superintendent of the plant from the 1960s to 1980s and played an important role in the operations of the Turner Valley Golf Club, which the trail borders. The trail boasts a steel derrick to commemorate the Dingman No. 1 well. “There was an old cement pad that used to be the water tower for the town of TV,” McLaren said. “We used that pad to mount the derrick on.” The trail has attracted a lot of attention, particularly because it goes along the extended Friendship Trail between Black Diamond and Turner Valley. “It’s a part of our recreational path system,” said McLaren. “There are a lot of people who are using that pathway. When I’m out golfing I look over and quite often see someone on a bike or someone walking going from site to site and sign to sign and getting a little bit of an education of what the Turner Valley gas plant and oilfield really means.” McLaren said it’s a great asset for both communities. “There’s quite a number of joggers, cyclists and walkers that can use the path and sit and get a great view of the Rockies and the Sheep River valley, as well as see the gas plant,” he said. “In 20 to 30 minutes you can walk through the whole area, see the signs and learn a little bit. I think that’s going to be good for the town and I think we will see that people will have a better idea of what the Turner Valley Gas Plant and oilfield were.” The project was a success with the help of various community partners, including the Town of Turner Valley, local service clubs, businesses and individuals that assisted by donating money and materials, said McLaren. For more information about the Turner Valley Oilfield Society or to learn more about the Jack Bowman Interpretive Trail go to turnervalleyoilfieldsociety.ca
