Step back in time and experience Alberta during its first oil boom at the Turner Valley Gas Plant
Turner Valley, Alberta - May 13, 2020Long before Fort McMurray, Turner Valley was the heart of Alberta’s energy development industry.
Natural gas was discovered in Turner Valley in 1914, and the Turner Valley Gas Plant was built to process the endless amounts of petroleum product coming from the area.
While both times and technology in the oilfield have changed, the old plant still remains. It hasn’t been operational since the mid-1980s, but people can step inside and take a tour of what was once the largest natural gas processing plant in Canada.
Although COVID has postponed the national and provincial historic site’s plans to open to the public in May, you can get a glimpse of the plant, now a museum, here:
Visitors to the Turner Valley Gas Plant stop to take in one of the exhibits in the century-old facility.
Pipes carrying product from the ground to the plant for processing. In its day, the Turner Valley Gas Plant was the largest natural gas processing plant in Canada’s oilfield.
Old signs and equipment that were once used daily by plant workers make visiting the plant like a trip back in time.
Gauges and pipes from the plant’s original structure, which was retrofitted many times over its 70-year operation, remain as reminders of the technology and innovation used in oil and gas extraction.
A determined weed grows through cracks in the cement floor of the Turner Valley Gas Plant. A symbol of Alberta’s determined oil and gas sector? You decide.
An old, rusted shack and stacks sits just as it was when the Turner Valley Gas Plant closed in 1985.
A weather-worn shut off for the vent tank allowed plant workers to cease operations with a pull of a cable in an emergency.
A pipeline highway sits idle at the Turner Valley Gas Plant. Impressive volumes of gas and oil used to flow through these pipes when the plant was operational from 1914 – 1985.
The Turnery Valley Gas Plant, which is owned and operated by Alberta Culture, Multiculturalism and the Status of Women will open again, but until then, you can learn more about the historic site by visiting https://www.turnervalleygasplant.ca/
Luke Spencer, Digital Media