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Village boasts historic landmark

A tall wooden structure like those that filled the landscape in the high country area decades ago is now a monument in a foothills village of 310 people.
A replica of a 1930s oil derrick, erected by the Twin Cities Hotel in Longview last week, pays tribute to the region’ s rich oil and gas history.
A replica of a 1930s oil derrick, erected by the Twin Cities Hotel in Longview last week, pays tribute to the region’ s rich oil and gas history.

A tall wooden structure like those that filled the landscape in the high country area decades ago is now a monument in a foothills village of 310 people.

The Twin Cities Hotel in Longview erected a 65-foot tall, 40,000-pound replica of a 1930s oil derrick on their lot last week as a tribute to the region’s rich oil history.

“It’s a monument dating back to the era of this hotel and how this town was built and what it was built on,” said Paulo Alves, co-owner of the Twin Cities Hotel.

“Looking at the old pictures you can see these derricks all over the country.”

In April, Longview Village council approved the hotel owners’ request to amend the land use bylaw to allow for the 65-foot tall derrick. The bylaw’s maximum height is 27.88 feet for commercial structures. The structure was built in Calgary, transported to Longview on June 4 and set up using two cranes in just three hours, said Alves.

“We had quite a few people standing by watching,” he said. “All the comments are really positive. The locals are very happy. It looks absolutely amazing.”

Although the structure looks wooden, it was built out of metal for longevity and safety purposes.

The structure is flying the Canadian, United States, Village of Longview and Philippines flags —the latter in honour of a hotel employee from the Philippines who now lives in Longview.

Alves said a railing will be built around the oil derrick within a month and visitors and residents are welcome to take photographs.

A descriptive plaque will be added this summer.

“My business partner Chris (Goss) and myself are proud new owners of a historic building that has been in business for 77 years,” he said of the hotel. “We put up the monument to reflect that, reflect the village of Longview and the surrounding area.”

Longview Mayor Cliff Ayrey couldn’t help but notice a change in the landscape when returning home to Longview on June 5.

“The landscape has been altered just a bit,” he said. “That’s great. It has a certain authenticity to it and how it relates to the 1930s. I think they were able to capture that in their designs.”

Ayrey said the oil derrick is an added landmark to the village, which council and administration, with the help of residents, will continue to build upon.

“One part of Longview’s history is oil and gas – ranching and farming is another big part of that,” he said.

“We have people who are digging into the history that’s more on the ranching end and we are going to try to capture that.

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