("Number 1" in foreground, "Number 2" in background). William S. "Never Sell" Herron, a former lumber and mining entrepreneur from Northern Ontario, tried his luck at sheep farming near Okotoks in 1901. A decade later while eating his lunch on the Sheep River, he came upon some previously known gas seepages. Samples of the gas sent by Herron to Pennsylvania and the University of California for analysis contained small amounts of "Wet gas." Later he invited Calgary businessman Archibald Wayne Dingman and lawyer Richard B. Bennett on a fishing trip to the Sheep River, where Herron dramatically cooked eggs over the flaming natural gas.
In 1912, twelve businessmen, including Sir James Lougheed, T.J.S. Skinner and A.E. Cross, formed a syndicate with a capitalization of $150,000 to finance drilling in the Turner Valley. Called Calgary Petroleum Products, the syndicate hired Dingman as its managing director, and began drilling five kilometres west of Black Diamond in 1913. That year, the first sizeable flow of oil occurred. It finally blew in with a roar of wet gas flowing at a rate of 112,000 cubic metres per day. The light oil mixed with that flow was used as fuel at the wellhead.
Courtesy: Glenbow-Alberta Institute, W.J. Oliver Collection (ND8-419)
