Oil City EarthCache EarthCache

Oil City EarthCache is one in a series of EarthCaches in and around Waterton Lakes National Park. As this EarthCache is in a National Park, an entrance fee is required. It is located along the Akamina Parkway, open year round. Access may be limited during periods of heavy snowfall. This is the first National Historic Site in Waterton and it commemorates the first oil well in Western Canada.

Early Exploration

In the 1870s, the search for oil had begun in Western Canada. Locals to Waterton would have heard of Aboriginal stories about bears being attracted to oil and rolling in it to get relief from insects. Using this information, locals looked for oil seepages near this site and did find oil covered pools. By the 1880s, oil exploration was underway in the area followed by commercial use.

Six years before Waterton became a National Park, in 1889, Allen Patrick file a mineral claim for the oil seeps near Oil Creek, now known as Cameron Creek. In the years that followed, over 150 claims were staked in the area. As you drove up the road, you likely noticed how the rough terrain could have impeded travel over 100 years ago. Imagine trying to haul drilling equipment up here on a narrow horse trail. This made access very difficult and by 1893, all claims had been abandoned due to lack of experience or money. A few years later, in 1898, another entrepreneur named William Aldridge became the first person to commercially use oil form the seepages. To get the oil, he used gunny sacks to soak it up and skimmed it from sluice boxes. He then put it into liquor jugs, transported it out by pack horses and sold it for $1 a gallon as a lubricant and medicine (Aboriginal People would use it as a salve for open wounds).

In 1897, the Rocky Mountain Development Company was formed by John Lineham, Allen Patrick and G.K. Leeson. Four years later, they hauled heavy equipment and erected a wooden derrick and steam powered boiler. Drilling was slow, only about 30 feet per day, due to lack of experience, accidents and equipment failures. Then in September 1902, they struck a strong flow of oil, estimated at 300 barrels per day. A lot of it flowed right down the creek at first. Not long after though, the well casing failed and the equipment stuck in the hole. By 1904 the well was cleaned out again and a refinery was set up to process the oil. After producing some oil, the drill tools became lodged in the well again and it was finally abandoned.

Oil in a National Park?

As it turns out, the discovery of oil in Waterton was due to a unique geological anomaly. The oil seeps, where discovered, were actually in the Precambrian Lewis Thrust which consists of quartzite and limestone. Even at the time of discovery, geologists realized that finding oil in the older rocks was very unusual. Instead the oil originated from the younger Cretaceous sandstones which was overlaid by the older Lewis Thrust. The oil eventually worked its way up from the deeper rock layers via fractures and faults in the rocks. It eventually pooled close to the surface, creating a small reservoir which is the likely source of the seeps.

North of Waterton today, there are abundant oilfields. Some of the wells did not hit oil until a depth of more than 1800 metres (approximately 5900 feet). These fields are beyond the reach of the harder rock of the Lewis Thrust and therefore would have been easier to drill through.

It is partly due to this combination of events that Waterton Lakes National Park was probably spared from being turned into an oilfield. Instead, we have this beautiful National Park which Pincher Creek rancher Frederic W. Godsal advocated in 1893 that the Waterton Lakes area be set aside as a protected area .

In order to log this EarthCache, please send me an email (through my geocaching profile, kindly do not post in your log) the answers to the following questions:

On the first line of the email, please include the text “GC3XH98 – Oil City EarthCache”
1. How much oil was William Aldridge able to extract daily using his gunny sack method?
2. What is the estimated output of oil from this well before being abandoned?
3. Knowing how deep current wells are north of Waterton, how much further would these oil pioneers have to have drilled before reaching a sustainable depth?
4. What two reasons do you think prevented them from reaching that depth?
5. Photos at the cache site are always appreciated but no longer a requirement to log an EarthCache.

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