Speaker Series commemorates Churchill visit

A Calgary historian known for his captivating tales about Alberta’s history has a real gem he’s sharing this weekend about Turner Valley that dates back 88 years.

David Finch is using his storytelling prowess to relay the story of Sir Winston Churchill’s visit to the Turner Valley Gas Plant in 1929.

Finch will be giving a one-man presentation May 27 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Valley Neighbours Club in Turner Valley to kick off the Turner Valley Oilfield Society’s inaugural Speaker Series.

The presentation is sponsored by the society in recognition of Canada’s 150th birthday and will be followed by a tour of the national historic site.

“Winston was impressed with the Turner Valley oilfield, the largest in the British empire at the time,” said Finch, a member of the oilfield society.

“When he came to Canada he was always asking, ‘Do I get to go to Turner Valley?’ because it was making the front page of newspapers in England at the time. It was huge. It was booming.”

Finch is the author of more than 20 books about the history of the Canadian west including Hell’s Half Acre: Early Days in the Great Alberta Oil Patch.

He obtained details about Churchill’s visit to Turner Valley from Bradley P. Tolppanen’s book Churchill in North America, 1929, as well as Alberta newspapers and the Churchill Archive.

“I think the name Winston Churchill will be interesting to people,” he said. “The Turner Valley story is lost in the mist of time because today the story is Fort McMurray and before it was Leduc. It provides real concrete evidence of just how important this story is and people are always fascinated with Churchill.”

Finch compiled the information and gave the presentation to the Petroleum History Society in Calgary in January.

“I do a bit of an act,” he said. “I watched him on YouTube. Some of his speeches have been digitized. I pepper quotes throughout the whole things.”

In his research, Finch learned how important the Turner Valley Gas Plant was to Churchill.

“It had become evident to him during World War One that the future of power lay in petroleum,” he said.

During the war, a German company that operated in England as British Petroleum was seized and instantly had an oil company of its own, Finch learned.

In 1923, Churchill acted as a paid consultant for Burmah Oil and successfully lobbied the British government to allow Burmah to have exclusive rights to Persian oil resources.

With a continued interest in the production of oil and gas, Churchill made a special effort to visit the booming oilfield in Turner Valley during his month-long tour of Canada in the summer of 1929. He was accompanied by his brother Jack, son Randolph and nephew Johnny, as well as a number of Calgary oilmen.

Finch said W. Stewart Herron of the 1914 discovery well and John McLeod of Imperial Oil showed Churchill around the largest producing oilfield in the British Empire.

He visited the scrubbing plant, Hell’s Half Acre, where flares consumed excess natural gas, and recently drilled successful producing wells including Royalite No. 4, according to Finch. The well was one of the biggest producers in the valley, generating 21 million cubic feet of gas per day and 300 barrels of Naphtha that could be processed into gasoline.

Despite Churchill’s enthusiasm and interest in the intricacies of the work that went on at the gas plant, his son Randolph described the oilfield as a “satanic” looking valley with wealthy oilmen “pigging up a beautiful valley to make their fortunes and then being quite incapable of spending their money,” said Finch.

“Winston Churchill’s son thought it was ugly,” said Finch. “There were flares everywhere and it probably stank to high heaven. It was out there with no environmental controls and no understanding of environmental needs.”

Churchill did not share his son’s views and upon learning the difficulty the plant was having securing financing from British investors he invested in three oil companies – Baltac, Hargal and Structure – in amounts that would total tens of thousands of dollars in today’s value, Finch said.

Unfortunately for Churchill, all three companies went bankrupt in the early 1930s.

“He didn’t hang on to them long enough for them to turn a profit,” Finch said. “Nobody knew that there was a downturn coming.”

Finch said he hopes the story of Churchill’s visit to the Turner Valley Gas Plant will encourage visitors to return to the Speaker Series each May to both commemorate both the Dingman No. 1 discovery well, discovered May 14, 1914, and to kick off the touring season of the Turner Valley Gas Plant.

“We will try to find an interesting topic every year about the history of the oilfields and the gas plant,” Finch said. “Over the last five years several thousand people have been through the site. It’s becoming more known.”

For more information go to turnervalleyoilfieldsociety.ca

Admission to the Speaker Series is free.