The Turner Valley Gas Plant will reopen its doors to the public for weekend tours this summer.
The Turner Valley Gas Plant will reopen its doors to the public for weekend tours this summer.
Alexandra Hatcher, director of site operations for Alberta Culture and Tourism, said a small amount of money has been allocated to hire two interpreters to offer guided tours on Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays at the Turner Valley Gas Plant.
“We don't have an opening date confirmed yet,” said Hatcher. “We are working with the municipality on some details there.”
Hatcher said the Province has been working with the Turner Valley Oilfield Society to get the heritage site open to the public.
“What that will look like in the future we don't know yet,” she said. “This is a good start for us to be able to pilot the site. Last year we did not have funding for the site.”
The weekend tours are great news for the Turner Valley Oilfield Society, which has been pushing for more tours at the site for decades.
“We spent all year talking to Alberta Culture about getting these tours going,” said Earl Martin, chairman of the Turner Valley Oilfield Society and former employee of the gas plant. “They indicate it's a small amount of money. We hope to get some word on that quickly because we want to get advertising.”
The society had hoped to open the gas plant to tours last summer, but Alberta Culture and Tourism had to wait on the completion of the $1.4 million rehabilitation of the lab/office building, the only part of the facility washrooms, before it could offer regular tours.
Construction was completed last December.
The Turner Valley Gas Plant opened for tours following the centennial celebration of Dingman No. 1 two years ago, attracting more than 2,000 visitors to the centre the day of the celebration and another 446 during the July to September tours.
While the centre wasn't open for regular tours last summer, more than half a dozen pre-scheduled guided tours took place at the gas plant, said Martin.
Visitors are toured through the Dingman No. 1 discovery well, Dingman No. 2 well, light plant, compressor plant, scrubbing plant and the gasoline and propane plant.
Martin said opening the historic heritage site to the public has been a priority of the Oilfield Society since 1987.
He said environmental clean-up at the site began in the 1990s, followed by repairs and maintenance, including shoring up the river bank, repairing buildings and the recent upgrade to the administration building.
“There has been quite a lot of construction down at the site,” he said. “It's been an ongoing process the last eight or nine years.”
Martin said representatives from Alberta Culture and Tourism have been attending two-thirds of the Turner Valley Oilfield Society's monthly meetings to discuss getting the site open for regular tours.
“There's been a gas plant on that site since 1921 so there's a lot of history there and considerable time and money has been spent on the facility so it seemed to make sense to open it up at least part of the year to the public,” he said. “Hopefully we can keep the tours going each summer and maybe expand the length of time that we have the tours. We hope to, down the road, get this into a museum and interpretive centre that would be open perhaps all year round.”
Martin admits the Province's approval of funding for the tours comes as a surprise, considering the current financial situation of the government.
“The message since last fall had been that there was no money in the budget,” he said. “I think that they've worked hard to come up with a small amount of money to at least get the tours for the public started. We've had good cooperation and response from Alberta Culture. They're on side with us so I think that the fact they came up with a little bit of money is a tremendous step.”
Turner Valley Mayor Kelly Tuck said the Town has consistently encouraged the Province to invest in developing the property, which is owned by the Province, into a viable tourism asset.
“While I am pleased to hear funding will be allocated this season to provide tours, I hope Alberta Culture and Tourism will see value in developing the site to at least the same level of other provincial historic sites it owns and operates,” she said.
Martin said work continues to be ongoing to further develop the site and that the Turner Valley Oilfield Society is working towards increasing its membership and getting board members further trained to improve the society's capability in governance and accountability.
“That will probably help us just in dealing with Alberta Culture, the public and various organizations that we hope to connect with,” he said.
