Hundreds of people toured the Turner Valley Gas Plant this summer, but visits in future years will depend on funding, say provincial officials.
Alberta Culture and Tourism opened the doors to the Turner Valley Gas Plant for its official first summer of operation, drawing 776 people to the unique historical site for a glimpse of life in the booming oil and gas industry in the 20th century.
The Province allocated $34,000 to operate the site this summer. Four daily tours were held on Saturday, Sunday and statutory holidays, from June 25 to Sept. 5, led by three tour operators.
“Because this is brand new we didn’t really have an expectation for visitors,” said Alexandra Hatcher, director of site operations with Alberta Culture and Tourism. “We wanted to see what was going to happen and we can base the future years on what happened in this pilot project. We are using this year as a benchmark for going forward.”
The Turner Valley Oilfields Society has been lobbying the government to open the Turner Valley Gas Plant to the public since the late 1980s.
In May 2014, the site opened for the centennial celebration of the Dingman No. 1 well with more than 2,000 visitors and another 446 the remainder of the summer, but remained closed last summer as the Province worked to complete $1.4 million of rehabilitation work to the lab/office building, including adding public washrooms.
More than half a dozen pre-scheduled guided tours took place last summer, but the centre was not open for drop-in visitors.
Hatcher attributes this summer’s turnout to the Province’s advertising campaign for the site, which included information in local newspapers and online, as well as posters and take-away cards in businesses and visitor centres across the region.
“Once the marketing hit the communities there was definitely an increase in the number of visitors,” she said. “It was a long time coming that we could have it open to the public. It was great to open that to the community. People really enjoyed it.”
Some visitors to the site had a personal connection themselves or through a family member or had worked in the industry and were looking for a trip down memory lane to share with family and friends, said Hatcher.
Despite the successful first season, Hatcher said the future of the site is dependent on available funding.
“The budget next year would determine the number of staff we can hire and the number of hours we can be open to the public,” she said.
Earl Martin, chairman of the Turner Valley Oilfield Society, hopes there will be adequate funds to open the Turner Valley Gas Plant from June to September Friday to Sunday and stat holidays.
“If we were able to do that it would be an opportunity for a lot of students and teachers who’ve got an interest in history to take the tour,” he said. “If we got the word out early in the year the teachers could block out half a day to take a class to the plant to tour.”
Martin said he had the opportunity to tour the gas plant twice this summer.
The tours take visitors through the Dingman No. 1 discovery well, Dingman No. 2 well, light plant, compressor plant, scrubbing plant and gasoline and propane plant.
During his visit on Canada Day, Martin said there were just two other people on the tour. When he returned at the end of August, there were 13 people.
“Each time I go through I learn a little bit more about the plant or some person who was involved in some part of construction or operation of the plant,” he said.
Martin said the Turner Valley Oilfields Society assisted the Province with its advertising to get the word out to as many people as possible.
“As soon as the details were available we sent the information to various municipalities,” he said. “Our members put up 25 posters that were prepared by Alberta Culture in Turner Valley, Black Diamond, Longview and Okotoks.
“We spread the word a lot by word of mouth and by sending out a large number of emails. I believe the numbers increased as the summer went along.”
Martin said he was impressed with the successful season and looks forward to more tours in the coming years.
“We think the tours incurred a lot of interest in the area,” he said. “We are really pleased that Alberta culture was able to go ahead with tours and it was great to have them in 2016.
“Hopefully we can expand it a little bit next year.”
