Drilling Crew of the "Old Glory" Natural Gas Well at Bow Island, Alberta.
Eugene Coste (centre), a mining engineer of French descent educated at the Paris âcole Polytechnique, discovered the first natural gas well in Ontario at Essex County in 1889. Later retained by the Canadian Pacific Railway to find oil and gas on its substantial properties in the West, he joined forces there with the drilling team of Martin and Phillips who were drilling local gas wells supplying the town of Medicine Hat. W.R. "Frosty" Martin (left) had learned his trade in Pennsylvania and in the Petrolia-Sarnia fields of western Ontario. He had cooperated with A.P. "Tiny" Phillips (right) in drilling ventures that had secured a stable supply of natural gas for street lights and local industries.
The discovery of the "Old Glory" well at Bow Island on the South Saskatchewan River was recalled by Martin:
At this point I came on the job. The wooden derrick had been built at "Bow Island," the pipe and fuel were on the ground. Mr. Coste came out about that time and he ordered the rig torn down and the tools moved to another location. I was able to reason with him, due to the fact that we had all the equipment ready to go and our camp established, that it wouldn't take long to drill the well on down to Medicine Hat sand. With this he agreed.
That was the case of Bow Island -- we had some trouble with the water in the big hole where we set 10-inch pipe through the water, finally reached the Medicine Hat sand at about 1,100 feet. However, my records to the office in Winnipeg showed we were only 900 feet deep having in mind that we could reach the Dakota sandstone, and I didn't know what depth....
Coste wasn't very well satisfied with this and suggested that we do not do it. I kept reporting progress up until finally I reached the fishing job with my bank roll, and I was ordered by wire to abandon....
A few days later we were down to 1,909 feet. We had run into Dakota sandstone and the well was producing about eight million feet. I wired Mr. Coste and he wired me to order 4-inch tubing and the necessary equipment to tube the well and that he would be out shortly. The well burned for about four months awaiting the arrival of this material....
Also included in this 1909 photograph of the "Old Glory" drilling crew are H. Lloyd (second from the left) and Garret W. Green (second from the right), who later became General Superintendent of Northwestern Utilities.
Courtesy: Canadian Western Natural Gas, Calgary, Alberta
