Shacks, People And Petroleum

Abstract

Abstract Tents, shacks and small houses served as the first living quarters in Turner Valley Heat, water, sanitarian, business, leisure, entertainment and crime were to develop in due course. But at first it was a lot like an extended campout. Dingman No. 1 made the Valley famous in 1914. The closest town was Black Diamond, a farming community centre. Even by 1924 when the spectacular Royalite NO.4 well blew in, only a few buildings existed at the present site of the town of Turner Valley. A panorama photograph, one of those mind-bending photos that looks south at one end and north at the other, shows only a few buildings near those famous wells in 1925. Seventeen derricks or well heads dot the panorama view. Sam Coultis lived on the hill which became known as Snob Hill across the river and southeast from the plant. Just below the riverbank sat the houses of his workmen. Each day they walked across a foot bridge to the small plant. A school, some company offices and warehouses, a few homes near the wells where the men were employed and the famous flare in the coulee called Hell's Half Acre complete the picture. This was the beginning of the boomtime for Turner Valley. Housing at first consisted of tents. As the permanence of the oilfield became obvious, some people built houses but many just lived in tar paper shacks. That is, tar paper was the only covering on the small frame buildings, built on skids, that were hauled from one work site to the next. Some shacks eventually got a protective coat of siding but still, they were small. One lady commented that the cars were bigger than the houses so that the cars could pull the houses around. Full sized houses were built for the plant management at the top of Snob Hill. Other people rented or bought land but many just squatted, with no thought or care for a title, until they moved to the next worksite. The only settlement to survive the years since the 1920s was Black Diamond. Even there many of the houses had come from many other communities before settling down for good. Heat was an important commodity when you lived in a tar paper shack, years before insulation or central heating. Most buildings were heated with waste gas from anyone of the numerous nearby wells. Seldom did the gas cost much, if anything, but the unscrubbed fuel exacted other payments. First it just plain stank. A high sulphur content made the valley smell like rotten eggs when the gas was burned. Next the pressure was highly unpredictable. One lady boasted she could cook a turkey in 20 minutes when the pressure was up to 220 pounds per square inch. Another lady died when her house blew up after a gas leak filled her house with gas. Not only did the gas smell. One story says that when the vicar was coming for tea the silver tea service was highly polished and then covered carefully to keep it bright.