For the week of May 11, 2026.
On May 14, 1914, the Dingman No. 1 well struck petroleum in Turner Valley, Alberta, roughly 25 kilometres southwest of Calgary. For the next three decades, this region was one of the most important sources of petroleum and natural gas in Canada. It helped fuel Alberta’s economic growth and make the province the centre of Canadian oil production.
Turner Valley is located in Treaty 7 territory, the traditional lands of the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot), Tsuut’ina (Sarcee), and Iyarhe Nakoda (Stoney) First Nations, and the longtime home of the Métis people. Beginning in the late 19th century, the Canadian government sold sections of this land to prairie homesteaders to encourage settlement. Brothers James and Robert Turner named the lands surrounding their ranch “Turner Valley” in 1887.
Nearby, in 1911 William Stewart Herron found petroleum gas seepage along the Sheep River. With oilman Archibald Dingman and other investors, he formed the Calgary Petroleum Products Company and began drilling in 1913. They struck wet (liquid) natural gas at a well site named Dingman No. 1 the next year. Calgary newspapers sensationalized the find, causing “oil fever” in the valley. The Calgary Petroleum Products Company quickly constructed a plant to process the wet natural gas using expansion and compression chambers. The boom went bust within 12 weeks but laid the foundations of a community centred both economically and socially around the oilfield.
Fire destroyed the Turner Valley Gas Plant in 1920. When Calgary Petroleum Products Company could not afford to replace it, Imperial Oil took over the oilfield and built a new plant. Through its subsidiary Royalite, it constructed a pipeline that connected Turner Valley to Calgary. Royalite created a processing and transportation monopoly. Over the years, problems with the pressurized lines that crisscrossed Turner Valley and nearby towns led to serious injuries and property damage.
In 1924 Turner Valley became a major Canadian petroleum producer when Royalite pierced the limestone gas cap and discovered a pocket of sour gas and petroleum condensates. The gas caught fire and burned for ten days. Turner Valley became known as “Hell’s Half Acre,” as Royalite extracted a huge amount of natural gas to produce a small quantity of condensate and burned off the excess through flaring in the 1920s and 1930s. The province imposed conservation measures after Royalite struck a major oil pool in 1936 and production increased again, now including crude oil alongside wet natural gas. Between 1936 and 1938, Alberta provided 98 percent of Canada’s petroleum. Most of that Alberta oil (about 97 percent) came from Turner Valley.
Production in Turner Valley peaked at about eight or nine million barrels a year during the Second World War (1939–1945) and then rapidly declined in the late 1940s due to depressurization of the oilfield caused by earlier flaring. Although extraction slowed, the Turner Valley Gas Plant continued operating until 1985 and the oilfield still produces today.
