An Okotoks area man was looking at family history when he celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Dingman Well oil strike on May 14 in Turner Valley.
Steve Alger’s grandparents, RJ Widney and Carmen Alger were players in the Turner Valley oil boom after the discovery on May 14, 1914.
“RJ Widney was one of the wheels around the oil patch in Turner Valley,” said Steve Alger, over a coffee from his Okotoks area home.
Carmen Alger, Steve’s other grandfather, moved to Turner Valley from Saskatchewan in the 1930s. He would play a role in Widney’s success.
“Carmen brought his wife, three kids, Harry, Ross and Gordon to Turner Valley with nothing,” Steve said. “They stayed under the light of the flare until they found a place to stay.”
The Algers went on to do some big things in Alberta. Steve’s dad, Harry, was the Highwood MLA from 1982-1988. Ross was Calgary mayor from 1977-1980. Gordon was killed in the Second World War.
Carmen saw opportunity in the oil industry, but not necessarily by drilling.
“Carmen supplied timber for building derricks – he would have been selling my grandfather RJ Widney lumber for his rigs,” Alger said. “Heritage Park actually came out to the Widney Ranch to get some timber to reconstruct their version of a cable-tool rig in the park there.”
Unlike Carmen Alger, RJ Widney had an oil background when he came to Turner Valley in 1912. He had drilled in California before heading to southern Alberta to ranch. While the nearby Sheep River has always attracted some of the best anglers in the world, none of them could fish like Widney.
“He was a famous fisherman — fishing tools out of the hole,” Alger said. “Whenever there was a hole that was shut down for tools that they could not get out of there, he was the guy they called.”
He became a legend in the industry when he fished out a pair of drill bits which had become lost in the hole at Illinois No.1, outside of Turner Valley at a place aptly called Little Chicago. Ten other fishers had failed before Widney scooped up the bits.
Widney also became renowned for his drilling ability. He was drilling for Southern Alberta Co. when the well began producing some 40 barrels a day in the Turner Valley area in 1914. He also gained fame for one of his unsuccessful holes.
During a stint in Aldergrove, B.C., east of Vancouver, he drilled the deepest hole in Canada at that time at 7,547 feet. While impressive in size, it was a dry hole.
Dry holes were part of the business, but Widney didn’t make a habit of it.
He returned to Turner Valley and founded Widney Oils in 1929. He drilled the first portion of the Turner Valley Royalties Discovery Well in 1936.
He went on to form Widney Refineries in Turner Valley from 1934-1939. He later founded Widney Oil and Drilling and Widney Well Servicing in 1950.
He had some partners for the well servicing company — his son Dan Widney, and son-in-law Harry Alger. They looked north at another historic strike at Leduc.
The company serviced Imperial Oil’s Leduc wells for three decades.
“We lived one mile away from Leduc No. 1 just outside of Devon,” Steve said. “We kept all the rigs in our backyard.”
At one point it was the biggest oil service company in Canada.
R.J. Widney was elected to the Canadian Petroleum Hal of Fame in 1997. Dan was elected to the Petroleum Hall of Fame in 1998.
(With excerpts from the Soul of Canada’s Petroleum Discoveries 2010 calendar. A Soul of Canada’s calendar dealing with the Turner Valley 1914 strike will be issued in the near future).
