In 1920 an oil company started to drill for oil near New Brigden, it brought a lot of activity and employment to the area. However the boom was short lived, in 1923 the well was destroyed by fire and vacated. Once again in 1941, a drilling rig was set up about 3 miles west of New Brigden. It was a tall rig (120 ft.), the diesel motors that drove the draw works ran on distillate which was hauled in by rail. A steam engine was used during the winter to keep things thawed out. It took a box car load of coal every week to keep the steam engine running, the coal was shipped from Sheerness to New Brigden via rail. Nels Holmes truck was used to haul the coal to the rig from New Brigden and the dynamite that was used for the drilling process was stored in a cutter and guarded by Ed Wilson. It was reported that the well was about 6000 ft deep and drilling would continue for a few days and then suddenly the drilling was ceased and the well was capped. To this day no one knows for sure why the well was ceased and capped. The above photo is of the 1941 drilling rig.
A mystery!! I wonder if anyone out there knows the reason.
ReplyDeleteBeing from the area and having worked in the industry there, I would guess that the well was either dry or they were very close to a high pressure blowout which would have spelled disaster. In 1941 I doubt there were ways or means to contain a blow out from a well of that depth.
ReplyDeleteAwesome write up! If you know: regarding coal for the area, home heating, industry, etc, did it all typically come in from Sheerness? Was thinking about that when we visited the area some weeks back.
ReplyDeleteMost of the coal came from Sheerness, some of it came from Forestburg/Hardisty mines also.
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