NORTHERN ALBERTA.
Economic Minerals.
Travellers, Explorers and Prospectors Describe the Country as a
Veritable Store House of Mineral Wealth.—Gold Found in the Bars
in Peace river.—Indications of Plentiful Supply of Iron.—
Lignite Found in Abundance.—Historic Deposits of Salt.—The
Famous Athabaska Tar Sands.—Their Commercial Value.—
Indications of Petroleum.—Boring Experiments.—Natural Gas
Under a Wide Area.—Travellers Use Natural Gas Jets to Boil
their Camp Kettles.
Northern Alberta, according to the reports of travellers, geological
explorers and prospectors, is a veritable storehouse of mineral wealth,
its natural richness in this respect including gold, iron, coal, gypsum,
salt, sulphur, galena, natural gas, petroleum, tar sands or asphaltum,
etc.
In his report of 1888, Mr. R. G. McConnell of the Geological Survey (See
p. 18) states:—“Gold was found in many of the bars in Peace river, and
in several places in sufficient quantities to deserve attention. Three
miles above the mouth of Battle river, a large bar nearly a mile long on
the left bank was examined, from which we obtained fifteen to twenty
colours of fine gold, by washing a few handfuls of the mixed gravel and
sand in an ordinary frying pan. We tried the bar at several points, and
always with the same result. A small stream descends from the plateau on
the opposite side of the river, and by leading its waters across the
river, which is here about one thousand feet wide, the bar might be
easily and inexpensively worked on a large scale. Twelve miles farther
up the river, another bar was examined, which yielded from twenty to
forty colours when washed in the same way. Numerous other bars occur in
this portion of the river, which would probably give as good results as
those examined.
“The presence of fine gold in some quantities in the bars above the
mouth of Battle river is probably due to the diminution in the strength
of the Peace river current which takes place here, and its consequent
loss of transporting power. The same fact is shown in the gradual
substitution of sand bars for gravel bars which occur at the same point.
“Besides the gold on Peace river, two colours were also washed out of a
bar on Loon river, an eastern tributary of the Peace.”
Mr. Alfred von Hamerstein, a German gentleman who has lived in the
Athabaska country for many years, latterly devoting his attention wholly
to prospecting for petroleum, was examined before the Senate committee
of 1907 and explained that before beginning boring operations for oil,
he had been engaged in gold mining in Athabaska and Peace river
districts. He had inspected McLeod river at a place called Assiniboia. A
half-breed took out one hundred and fifty dollars from a bar there. He
himself
TOOK OUT GOLD
at a little bar right opposite the mouth of Lesser Slave river in the
Athabaska. He worked it for part of two summers. He would take out
enough to last him for the winter, and then quit. It is hard work. The
Indians and natives have gold and diamonds on the brain. They had taken
to him rocks containing very nice garnets, but they were very mysterious
about them.
Mr. von Hamerstein explained he had also worked for gold on Peace river.
There is very good mining there, a little below Battle river, but the
gold is so very fine that for every dollar you save there, about four
and a half go away, and there are some peculiar things that no one can
account for. After you have got it there is trouble with the
quicksilver, which does not take up the gold. The method he adopted was
to run the quicksilver, and then before running it over again, to roll
it in acid.
Before the Senate committee of 1888, Bishop Clut stated that in Peace
river and Liard river, certainly there was gold in large quantities. On
Peace river, twelve or thirteen years prior to 1888, miners made from
fifteen dollars to twenty dollars a day washing, but in the winter and
when the water was high they could not work, and they abandoned the
mines. “If the country were settled,” the bishop remarked, “those mines
might be worked to better advantage, because the miners could find other
occupation in the winter and when the water was high.”
According to Mr. von Hamerstein, at Black bay, on Lake Athabaska, there
is first-class galena—none better. It carries gold, silver and copper.
They assayed some of the product at Chipewyan, and found that it carried
roughly about six dollars or seven dollars worth of gold, and some
copper. There is a big seam near Black bay, and one can follow it up
right along until it comes to an island. That is a very fine country for
gold, and there have been several attempts to make something out of it,
but the time is not ripe.
INDICATIONS OF IRON.
Indications of the presence of iron have been found on Peace,
Clearwater, and Athabaska rivers. A specimen rock from near Pelican
rapids on Athabaska river contained 12.4% of metallic iron. J. B.
Tyrrell found indications of iron in Churchill river district, and also
north of Lake Athabaska.
According to Mr. R. G. McConnell’s 1888 report:—Clay ironstone in
nodules and thin beds, is of universal occurrence in the Cretaceous
shales of the Peace region, but is especially abundant in some of the
outcrops of the Fort St. John shales on Peace river, between Battle
river and Smoky river. The ironstone, here, owing to the rapid erosion
of the soft shales, has been silted out, and in many places forms thick
accumulations at the foot of the cliffs lining the valley, some of which
may prove to be of economic value. The Pelican sandstone on the
Athabaska is usually capped with a bed of hemitiferous sandstone varying
in thickness from a few inches to four or five feet. A specimen of the
rock was examined in the laboratory of the Geological Survey, and found
to contain 12·4 per cent. of metallic iron.
Mr. von Hamerstein, in his evidence before the Senate committee of 1907,
stated that there are indications of iron along Clearwater river. He
found some very nice pieces of iron, and he found limestone in the
centre of Athabaska.
Once, in Peace river district, on the way from Lake Chipewyan, he found
a deposit of red stone; he did not know whether it was ochre or hematite
of iron. He had any amount of it, but upset with his canoe and lost it.
A large amount of ochre is found on the eastern bank of the Athabaska,
between Athabaska and Grand rapids. He had also observed what seemed to
him a large amount of hematite of iron between Athabaska and the mouth
of greater Slave river, while on Slave river itself, at a certain point,
large bodies of magnetic ore are indicated by the action of the compass,
which gets entirely out of order.
COAL AND LIGNITE.
Mr. von Hamerstein informed the committee that there is a fine seam of
coal at McKay, and went on to say that he had taken out, the season
before his examination by the committee, about twenty tons, right on the
river bank. There was a good quantity of bituminous coal, which could be
used for common blacksmithing, but not for welding. Where exposed and
worked, this seam goes down about five or six feet deep, and it seems to
be getting larger. There is quite a bit of coal taken out every year by
the people who live at Chipewyan.
There is, according to Mr. von Hamerstein, another fine seam of coal at
a little creek named Horse creek, which is about a mile and a half south
from McMurray on the east side of Athabaska river. Coal may also be
found in other places. There is a seam, for instance, about two miles
below Stony island.
W. F. Bredin, M.L.A., confirmed Mr. von Hamerstein’s evidence as to the
deposits of coal near McKay, which is about twenty miles north of
McMurray.
In his report of 1888, describing his explorations the previous season,
Mr. R. G. McConnell stated:—
“Lignite was found in Peace river sandstone in Peace river in several
places, but in seams too small to be workable. It also occurs in the
plateaus south of Lesser Slave lake. In one section at the latter place,
four seams, ranging in thickness from one to four feet, besides a number
of smaller ones, was found, distributed through about a thousand feet of
sandstone and shales. Drift lignite was also found in Marten river near
the base of Marten mountain, but it was not traced to its source. On the
Athabaska, the Grand rapid sandstone is lignitiferous, some of the seams
being from four to five feet thick, but the quality is usually inferior.
Several small seams also occur imbedded in the tar sands.”
DEPOSITS OF GYPSUM.
Mr. McConnell states in his report that “Gypsum is deposited in small
quantities by the mineral springs at La Saline, and it also occurs on
Peace river between Bouillé rapid and Peace point, where beds ten to
fifteen feet in thickness are said to exist. Blocks of gypsum several
feet in diameter were found on Peace river above its confluence with
Loon river, and on Red river a few miles above its mouth. They have
probably been derived from the Peace point exposures, and carried up the
valley of Peace river by ice during the Glacial period.”
Mr. Alfred von Hamerstein gave evidence to the same effect before the
Senate committee of 1907. He stated that there “are large deposits of
gypsum on the southern bank of Peace river, near Peace point, which is
situated somewhere near the mouth of Peace river. Very large deposits of
the same economic mineral are in the neighbourhood of Salt river.”
SALT MINES.
Harmon, writing in his journal at Chipewyan as long ago as 1808,
wrote:—“About sixty miles from this, down Slave river, there are
several places where almost any quantity of excellent, clean, white salt
may be taken, with as much ease as sand along the sea shore. From these
places, the greater part of the North West is supplied with this
valuable article.”
Before the Senate committee of 1907, Mr. von Hamerstein stated that at
Salt river, salt was found right on the surface. There is a spring which
comes out of the ground, and the water is so salty that it cannot take
up any more. Right at McMurray one hundred and fifty feet of rock salt
was found. The traders and Hudson’s Bay Company’s people come down and
take it with shovels, and they sell all the salt that is used along
there. It is taken from Salt river. Witness did not know what they got
for it.
In his report of 1888, Mr. McConnell writes:—“At La Saline, on the
Athabaska, twenty-eight miles below the Forks, and about two miles above
the mouth of Red Earth creek, several mineral springs occur about half a
mile east of the river on the edge of the valley there, sixty feet deep.
The deposits from the springs, consisting principally of calcareous
tufa, cover the face of the escarpment and have also built up a cone on
the top of the bank ten to fifteen feet high and about two hundred feet
wide. The water is strongly saline, holding a considerable percentage of
sodic-chloride. Sulphuretted hydrogen gas escapes from the bank in
several places and taints the air for some distance from the springs.
Besides the calcareous tufa the cone contains small deposits of common
salt, gypsum and native sulphur, while pure tar, derived from the tar
sands beneath, issues from the bank in two places. The springs feed a
shallow lake which is situated at the foot of the escarpment, and is
surrounded by a clay flat partly bare and partly covered with coarse
grasses.”
SULPHUR BEDS AND SPRINGS.
While giving evidence before the select committee of the Senate in 1907,
Mr. von Hamerstein explained that there are sulphur beds and springs
between McMurray and Lake Athabaska. Extensive sulphur deposits are
found on the east side of Athabaska river between McMurray and the lake.
It is inland about two miles, and in some places it is found in large
quantities, and beyond the lake, at several places on the east shore, as
well as the west shore of Great Slave river. In some places there is a
very large amount of sulphur. It comes from an old crater, in the shape
of saline water, containing a large amount of sulphur. This saline water
at spots runs over three or four acres, the water evaporates, and the
sulphur remains.
Mr. von Hamerstein also stated that on “the lower part of the Athabaska
the limestone which is exposed all along the river is of a very good
quality. There is also found clay fit for puddling and for making
brick.” He added that sand of the very best quality for making glass is
abundant, and this industry Mr. von Hamerstein said he believed was
bound to come into existence and be profitable through the existence of
cheap fuel, and intense heat in the shape of natural gas in the country.
THE FAMOUS “TAR SANDS.”
The occurrence of huge deposits of an oily bituminous or tarry substance
along Athabaska river was referred to in the journals of the pioneer
explorers of the region. In the account of his historical journal in
1879, Mackenzie mentions that the exudation of the “bituminous
fountains”, as he called them, when mixed with gum or the resinous
substance collected from the spruce fir, was used by the natives and
voyageurs to gum their canoes. After investigating the character of
these deposits, geologists have agreed in describing the black plastic
mass as “Tar Sands.”
Mr. McConnell described these deposits as resting on the limestone and
well exposed in high cliffs on both sides of Athabaska river. At Cascade
rapid, this formation is one hundred and fifty feet thick and is so
saturated that pure tar oozes out of the bank in several places and
streams down the slope. Mr. McConnell proceeds in his report to
say:—“The tar-sands mentioned above belong to the Dakota formation and
constitute in this region the basal member of the Cretaceous system.
They rest unconformably on the Devonian limestones. Lithologically they
may be described as soft sandstone, the cementing material of which is a
bitumen or inspissated petroleum derived from the underlying limestones.
The sands are siliceous and usually rather fine-grained, but also grade
occasionally into a coherent grit. The eastern boundary of the tar-sands
was not precisely defined, but their outcrop was estimated to have a
minimum distribution of fully one thousand square miles. In thickness
they vary from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty-five
feet. The tar is unequally distributed through the sands, in some places
merely staining the grains, but in most of the sections examined it is
present in sufficient quantity to render the whole mass more or less
plastic. An analysis by Mr. Hoffmann of a specimen collected some years
ago by Doctor Bell gave by weight:—
Bitumen 12·42 per cent.
Water (mechanically mixed) 5·85 per cent.
Siliceous sands 81·73 per cent.
A cubic foot of the bituminous sand rock weighs, according to Mr.
Hoffmann, 117·5 lbs. This figure multiplied by the percentage of
bitumen, 12·42, gives 14·59 lbs. as the amount of bitumen present in a
cubic foot, or 14·59/63·7 = 22·9 per cent. in bulk, taking 63·7 pounds
as the weight of one cubic foot of rock. At the minimum thickness of one
hundred and fifty feet, and assuming the thickness as given above at one
thousand square miles, the bituminous sand rock in sight amounts to
28·40 cubic miles. Of this mass, if the preceding analysis is taken as
an average, although this is probably rather high, 22·9 per cent. in
bulk or 6·50 cubic miles is bitumen. This calculation can, of course,
only be regarded as an approximation, but will serve to give some idea
of the enormous outpouring of bituminous substances which have taken
place in this region. The amount of petroleum which must have issued
from the underlying limestones required to produce 6·50 cubic miles of
bitumen cannot be estimated, as the conditions of oxidation and the
original composition of the oil are unknown. It must, however, have been
much greater than the amount of bitumen.
“A few miles west of the Athabaska the sand rock, still saturated with
tar, passes below the higher divisions of the Cretaceous, and its
extension in this direction can only be ascertained by boring. It was
not recognized on Peace river nor on the lower part of Red river, and
must disappear somewhere in the intervening region.
“In ascending the Athabaska the tar-sands, after an exposure of over
twenty miles, pass below the surface at Boiler rapid and are not seen
again.”
COMMERCIAL VALUE OF THE TAR SANDS.
As to the actual value of these deposits, Mr. McConnell has this to say
in his report:—“The commercial value of the tar sands themselves, as
exposed at the surface, is at present uncertain, but the abundance of
the material, and the high percentage of bitumen which it contains, make
it probable that it may, in the future, be profitably utilized for
various purposes, when this region is reached by railways. Among the
uses to which it is adapted, may be mentioned roofing, paving,
insulating electric wires, and it might also be mixed with the lignite
which occurs in the neighbourhood, and pressed into briquettes for
fuel.”
Before the Senate committee of 1907 Mr. von Hamerstein was examined at
length regarding these beds of tar sands, or “asphaltum,” as he called
it, and as it is generally called in the district. He described these
beds as occurring where petroleum seemed to have broken through the
surface and soaked the ground for miles around. This substance, Mr. von
Hamerstein remarked, could scarcely be termed asphaltum. It is oil
gum—something the nature of tar. He produced a piece of this material
which he had taken out himself. He also produced a bottle containing
liquid taken from springs in the ground. He described it as nothing else
but a heavy petroleum, which comes out of the ground. There are
inexhaustible quantities of that. It has formed pools over the land
which are of considerable size in some places. In summer time it comes
out in large quantities, but it hardens in the winter, and of course the
springs take time to get started again. It is not flowing continuously,
but flows whenever it has a chance. The cold seems to draw it together
and bake it. This is the largest quantity of petroleum witness had ever
seen in the world. This area extends from McMurray for fifty miles along
the road.
Mr. von Hamerstein said he thought there was
NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE WORLD.
He had been in Texas, Kansas, and Indian Territory, and had looked over
the asphalt beds in California, but had found nothing to compare with
it. This “asphalt” does not resemble Trinidad asphalt, for the latter
comes from a crater, and the substance is not the same. The Athabaska
substance is not straight asphalt; it is nothing but oil gum, out of
which asphalt can be made. There is a large amount of petroleum in it.
He tested it himself, and got some paraffin out of it. If he could
obtain transportation, he could apply it for practical purposes. After
it is refined, and all the foreign substance taken out of it, it can be
used for road making.
Lubricating oil can be made out of it, and in fact he made cylinder oil
for his machinery out of it, and also got some paraffin out of it. The
rest he used for making tar paper. This product would certainly become
valuable as soon as there was transportation. The area covered by this
substance amounts to about twenty square miles.
Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, in his evidence before the same committee, referred
to these outcrops of tar sands. There is, he stated, an enormous amount
of sandstone there impregnated with hard thick petroleum of tar. The
probability is that when one gets back from the outcrop in some places
this substance will be found as a liquid oil instead of a hard tar that
is found there on the Athabaska. Mr. Tyrrell said he thought it quite a
fair and reasonable supposition that one would find good fluid oil in
the beds of the same geological age as the tar sand of Athabaska river.
This tar sand is very strongly in evidence along the river, and an
enormous amount of tar has actually gone to waste, as it were—floated
out and hardened there. The tar sand area extends for quite a number of
miles along the river. As you descend the river you get to those
tar-bearing beds, and then they are in evidence right along for a number
of miles down the river. Then you leave them altogether, and they do not
occur again. Mr. Tyrrell considered it highly probable that the
petroleum or liquid would be found in close proximity. Of course the
sandstone or tar would not have a marketable value at the present rates
of transportation, but, outside of that, probably it would be used as
paving material if it is ever needed in that vicinity. He thought it
COULD BE USED FOR MAKING PAVEMENT.
R. W. Ells, LL.D., F.R.S.C., in the Geological Survey report on “The
Bitumen or Oil Shales of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, also on the Oil
Shale Industry of Scotland,” says:—“The celebrated tar-sands of
Athabaska river in Northern Alberta may at some time furnish material
for distillation, since all attempts to find oil by boring have hitherto
been unsuccessful. These tar-sands have been well described by Doctor
Bell, and other officers of the Geological Survey who have visited the
area. Doctor Bell, after describing the immense amount of tarry matter
found along the river, states that ‘the pitchy sand itself may be useful
for a variety of purposes. When chopped out of the bank in lumps like
coal it was found to burn freely, with a strong smoky flame, if
supported in such a way as to admit of the free access of air. As the
bitumen became exhausted the fine sand fell to the bottom.’ . . . . A
very superior lubricating oil may be manufactured from it. Doctor
Hoffmann of the Geological Survey, Mr. Isaac Waterman, the well known
petroleum refiner of London, Ontario, and Lieutenant Cochrane,
Instructor in Practical Chemistry at the Military College, Kingston,
have found it to contain twelve to fifteen per cent. of bitumen.
Although this proportion may appear small, yet the material occurs in
such enormous quantities that a profitable means of extracting the oil
and paraffin which it contains may be found. The high banks of the river
and its branches offer an easy means of excavating it, and as it burns
readily one part might be consumed to extract the oil from another,
there being practically no limit to the quantity which may be obtained
for the digging.”
[Illustration: Oil Well at McKay, Athabaska river.]
Doctor Bell, in a paper before the American Institute of Mining
Engineers, Toronto, July, 1907, said:—“Different experiments made with
the tar-sands show that while they yield some good illuminating fluid,
their principal value consists in the large proportion of
FINE LUBRICATING OIL
which they afford. This oil was found to remain liquid in the cold
winter temperatures of the Canadian prairie provinces, and therefore, it
is very suitable for car wheels and machinery working in the open air.”
Mr. Crean in the report of his explorations in 1909 states:—“The
outcrop of tar-sand commences about thirty miles south of McMurray on
Athabaska river. It continues to about forty miles below McMurray on the
river. It extends to the east and west for at least thirty miles, and
varies in thickness from twenty to two hundred and twenty-five feet,
with probably an average of one hundred and fifty feet
thickness. . . . . The value of this immense deposit on the Athabaska is
not known. . . . . During the past season representatives of interests
in England and France have made examinations of it on the ground. Should
it be found to be capable of being converted to any commercial use, the
enormous extent of it would ensure that industries of considerable
public importance would be established in connection with it as soon as
railway communication is provided. Since Mr. McConnell’s report was
published, several other outcrops of the mineral have been reported. A.
W. Ponton, D.L.S., reports an outcrop near the fifth meridian, which is
about ninety miles west of McMurray. I reported an outcrop of tar-sand
in my report of last season on Buffalo lake which is one hundred and
twenty miles southeast and in the province of Saskatchewan. That these
outcrops are part of the same field is probable.”
INDICATIONS OF PETROLEUM.
Apart altogether from the commercial value of the tar sands themselves,
they are regarded by many geologists and practical operators as chiefly
important as indicating the existence of deposits of petroleum. For
instance, as long ago as 1888, Doctor G. M. Dawson of the Geological
Survey stated before the Senate committee:—“The pitch found along the
Athabaska may probably be of considerable value in the future; but in
the meantime was most important as giving reason to believe that
extensive deposits of petroleum existed in the country in which it
occurred. The quantity appeared to be practically inexhaustible.”
Mr. McConnell, in his report, enters very thoroughly into this phase of
the question. He writes:—“The tar sands evidence an upwelling of
petroleum to the surface unequalled elsewhere in the world, but the more
volatile and valuable constituents of the oil have long since
disappeared, and the rocks from which it issued are probably exhausted
as the flow has ceased. In the extension of the tar sands under cover
the conditions are different, and it is here that oils of economic value
should be sought. In ascending the Athabaska, the tar sands are overlaid
at Boiler rapid by a cover of shales sufficient to prevent the oils from
rising to the surface, and in ascending the river, this cover gradually
thickens. The geological attitudes of the shales is not the most
favorable, as the beds dip away from the outcrop at the rate of five to
ten feet to the mile, and it is possible that a part, or even the whole
of the oil may have flowed northwards and eastwards through the sands,
and escaped where these come to the surface. It is unlikely, however,
that all the oil has escaped in this manner, as small anticlinals in the
covering beds are almost certain to exist, and a differential hardening
of the beds themselves may serve to enclose reservoirs or inverted
basins of large capacity. It is also possible that the sands at their
outcrop may, by the deposition of tarry substances, be plugged tightly
enough to prevent further egress. Favourable indications of the presence
of oil in the vicinity of the Athabaska are also afforded by the
existence of the natural gas springs.”
TAR SPRINGS REPORTED.
Mr. McConnell proceeds to show that “Indications of the presence of oil
in the district are not confined to the tar sands, as on Peace river and
Lesser Slave lake inspissated bitumen was found in a number of places
lining cracks in nodules, and at Tar island in Peace river small
quantities of tar are brought to the surface by a spring. Tar springs
are also reported from several other places, but their existence lacks
verification.”
In his Summary Report of the operations of the Geological Survey, for
the year 1894, Doctor G. M. Dawson, the director, referring to Mr.
McConnell’s explorations and report, wrote:—“The occurrence of great
quantities of bitumen or maltha along a portion of Athabaska river has
long been known, having been noticed and commented upon by the very
earliest travellers in the region. Beds of sand or very soft sandstone
of Cretaceous age, varying from one hundred and forty to two hundred and
twenty-five feet in thickness, are there found to be more or less
completely saturated with bitumen, for a distance of some ninety miles
along the river. These beds are known as ‘tar sands.’ More recently a
number of smaller occurrences of bitumen in the form of ‘tar springs’ as
well as sources of combustible gas, have been found at different places
over a very extensive district. All these circumstances point to the
probable existence of a great petroleum field, of which possibly some
parts have already exhausted themselves in saturating the lowest
Cretaceous sands, but of which probably the greater portion is still
effectually sealed by the thick covering of overlying rocks. It is
believed that the source of the petroleum which has given rise to the
deposits of bitumen is in the Devonian strata, which here immediately
underlie those of Cretaceous age.”
EXPERIMENTAL BORINGS.
In 1893, at the suggestion of Mr. McConnell and Doctor Dawson, the
Dominion government began experimental borings for petroleum in the
Athabaska region.
The importance of actually ascertaining by means of boring operations,
the existence or otherwise of economically valuable bodies of petroleum
in the region had been recognized for many years, but the remoteness of
the region and the apparent impossibility of immediately utilizing any
discoveries which might be made, had hitherto prevented the necessary
experiments. A vote of seven thousand dollars was obtained from
Parliament for the purpose of initiating this work, the arrangements for
which were entrusted to the Geological Survey. After careful
consideration, it was determined that a bore-hole should in the first
instance be sunk at Athabaska, at which place the depth of strata to be
passed through in order to reach the horizon of the “tar sands” had been
estimated by Mr. McConnell at approximately from twelve to fifteen
hundred feet.
On October 24 the bore-hole had reached a depth of one thousand and
eleven feet, when it was found necessary, owing to the incoherent
character of the rocks, to stop work pending the arrival of more casing.
This was placed in the hole during the winter, but the drilling itself
could not be resumed till the spring, as the great quantity of gas met
with rendered it dangerous to keep a fire in the derrick or anywhere in
the vicinity of the well. This first boring was unavoidably abandoned at
a depth of one thousand seven hundred and seventy feet, without reaching
the probably oil-bearing beds at the base of the Cretaceous formation
but within a short distance of attaining these beds.
During these particular boring operations, according to the engineer in
charge, at three hundred and thirty-four feet a large flow of gas was
struck. The roaring of the gas could be heard half a mile away from the
works. The foreman who had seen the big gas well at Kingsville, Ontario,
stated that the flow of gas was as strong as in that well.
SECOND AND THIRD BORINGS.
The second and third of the experimental borings in search of petroleum
in the northern part of Alberta were begun early in the summer of 1897
near the mouth of Pelican river on the Athabaska and at Victoria on the
Saskatchewan below Edmonton, respectively. The sites selected for these
borings were determined largely by the knowledge of the stratigraphical
succession and the thickness already gained in the first bore-hole at
Athabaska. The borings at Pelican and Victoria had reached depths of
eight hundred and twenty and seven hundred and five feet respectively
before winter. Operations were resumed at both places in the spring of
1898, as soon as the requisite arrangements could be made. Work had been
suspended at Pelican in 1897 because of a very large flow of natural
gas, under great pressure. It was hoped that most of this gas might blow
off during the winter, and it was found, in fact, to be considerably
reduced in amount when the locality was again reached by the engineer in
charge in 1898. Work was resumed, but additional and very strong flows
of gas were soon met with in the underlying beds, and after exhausting
every method of mastering them and continuing the boring, it became
necessary again to suspend operations.
In regard to the actual existence of petroleum, the results of the
government borings have not up to the present stage been satisfactory.
The boring near the mouth of Pelican river penetrated the lower sandy
beds of the Cretaceous for some distance and demonstrated the existence
in these beds of a thick tarry petroleum or maltha, besides that of
great reservoirs of natural gas. It proved impossible to carry out this
boring to the very base of the Cretaceous and into the underlying
formation, in which the existence of a more fluid and merchantable oil
was still to be hoped for.
Doctor Dawson, reporting upon the result of these operations,
stated:—“The bore furnishes additional evidence of the existence in the
Northwest territories of a vast gas-field. The seemingly uniform
continuity of the Cretaceous beds, makes it almost certain that
gas-wells may be obtained by boring, over a great area. Unfortunately
the Pelican boring, like the boring at Athabaska, did not penetrate deep
enough to furnish reliable information as to the existence or
non-existence of petroleum of a high quality. The presence of
low-quality petroleum—maltha—is demonstrated, but as the more liquid
oil may very probably underlie this, and as we did not reach a
sufficient depth to determine the point, the result is unsatisfactory.”
WHY THE BORING WAS STOPPED.
The following extracts from the report of the engineer in charge of the
boring operations at Pelican river, Mr. A. W. Fraser, are interesting,
and show how and why the operations came to an abrupt termination:—“I
used some of the heavy petroleum or maltha which flowed from the well in
raising steam, and it made an extremely good fuel.
“If the hard slate stratum at eight hundred and twenty-one feet six
inches had been pierced, a great flow of petroleum might have, in my
opinion, been encountered. Indeed it is altogether possible that at that
depth we were within a few feet of a large body of petroleum. Had it
been struck while the flow of gas was in an unconquered condition, the
result would have been disastrous, as there might have been no possible
means of checking the flow. The flow of gas was so great that a cannon
ball could not have been dropped down the pipe.
“At seven hundred and seventy three feet a heavier flow of gas was
struck. It made a roaring noise coming out of the bore, and had quite a
pronounced petroleum odour. Increased quantities of petroleum in the
cuttings at these depths were encountered.
“At eight hundred and twenty feet a tremendous flow of gas was struck,
which blew every drop of water out of the bore. The roar of the gas
could be heard for three miles or more. Soon it had completely dried the
hole, and was blowing a cloud of dust fifty feet into the air. Small
nodules of iron-pyrites, about the size of a walnut, were blown out of
the hole with incredible velocity. They came out like bullets from a
rifle. We could not see them going, but could hear them crack against
the top of the derrick. It was impossible to do anything with the bore
that day, so we were forced to let it stand just as it was. There was
danger that the men would be killed if struck by these missiles. The
next day a long stick was put on the tools, so that the men could turn
them without getting too close to the bore. In this way we succeeded in
penetrating through eighteen inches of a conglomerate mass of these
iron-pyrites nodules embedded in heavy petroleum. As we drilled through
this the gas blew out the nodules of iron-pyrites embedded in oil.
“At eight hundred and twenty-one feet six inches a very hard stratum of
slate was encountered, which we penetrated about three inches. We could
get no water down the well on account of the strong flow of gas, so we
could make no further progress with the drill in this hard cutting. The
danger to the men was so great that they refused to work longer over the
bore. We then put the four and five-eighths inch casing down to the very
bottom, hoping to shut off gas, but it failed to do so.”
TERRIFIC PRESSURE OF NATURAL GAS.
Work was resumed here in 1898 (Geological Survey Report, Vol. XI, page
33a). It was thought that the flow of gas might have decreased, but on
work being resumed and the hole being cleaned out “the gas which had
increased in power with the cleaning of the hole cut the walls down and
blew great clouds of sand and gravel higher than the derrick.”
Subsequently at eight hundred and thirty-seven feet such a strong flow
of gas was struck that they were obliged to suspend operations. Mr.
Fraser further says in the same report:—“I proved the general
excellence and utility of the gas during the season, using it for my
boiler, cookstove and for lighting. I had only a one inch pipe, tapped
into the side of the casing, and probably did not use the one-hundredth
part of the gas coming from the bore, but there was sufficient to make
all the steam necessary on my twenty-five horse-power boiler, keep fire
in the stove, and also to supply a strong flare-light. The gas burned
beautifully clean. In working at the bore, the screeching and hissing of
the gas, when at all confined by the presence of the tools inside the
casing, or from other causes, was so great that the men complained of
pains in their ears and heads.”
BEGGED TO BE EXCUSED.
When giving his evidence before the Senate committee of 1907 Mr. von
Hamerstein begged to be excused from divulging results of his work in
boring for petroleum in the McMurray district, as other people had
entrusted their money with him in the enterprise. He said he felt at
liberty to state that their works so far made him very confident that
they were going to have one of the biggest petroleum fields in the
world. There was no doubt he said, petroleum would be found all through
that country, from Athabaska river to Peace river. He remarked that when
his party was boring once they struck natural gas, and one hundred and
fifty feet of salt. They went down through a hundred feet of salt, and
then they abandoned it. At this particular place they went about eleven
hundred feet altogether. They never went lower than eleven hundred feet.
Mr. von Hamerstein added: “As far as petroleum is concerned, I have all
my money put into it, and there is other people’s money in it, and I
have to be loyal. As to whether you can get petroleum in merchantable
quantities, that is a matter about which I would not care to speak. I
have been taking in machinery for about three years. Last year I placed
about fifty thousand dollars worth of machinery in there. I have not
brought it in for ornamental purposes, although it does look nice and
home-like.”
In the winter of 1910, Corporal A. H. Schurer, of the Royal Northwest
Mounted Police, made a patrol from Athabaska to McMurray. In his report
he states:—“I visited the oil wells sunk by Baron A. von Hamerstein at
Poplar island, six miles below McMurray. I could see very little with
the exception of the machinery, as the snow had covered everything up. A
Mr. Falkner, supposed to be representing a party of eastern capitalists,
has been staking out claims between McMurray and McKay for oil, during
the past two months, and I understand that he is also to prospect
Clearwater river east of McMurray for petroleum and other minerals. In
December last Mr. Julius Alteschul, a German, claiming to be a
representative of a London, England, financial house, visited McMurray,
and after having been there for a few days, stated that he had found a
mineral more valuable than radium, and that as soon as Athabaska river
was navigable, he would place one hundred workmen and their families at
McMurray, where he intended to start an industry; what this industry was
to be Mr. Alteschul did not make clear. It is the general impression
that Alteschul was merely paying a visit to a much talked of place in
order to find out what minerals actually existed, but did not want his
mission to be known.”
NATURAL GAS.
Corporal Mellor states (Royal Northwest Mounted Police report of 1909)
that when patrolling the buffalo country near Peace point he came across
“a large natural gas spout burning in a muskeg and was informed it never
goes out.”
During his examination before the select committee of the Senate in 1907
Mr. von Hamerstein drew the attention of the committee to the waste of
natural oil gas at the government bore hole at Pelican portage or
Pelican rapids. It was still burning. When Mr. von Hamerstein went up in
the month of June, 1906, it blew about eighteen or twenty feet. About
four years previously he found it was about forty feet, a vertical
stream. It exploded with such force that not a hundredth part of the gas
had a chance to be inflamed. The ground all around it had fallen in. Mr.
von Hamerstein expressed the opinion that this is the biggest gas well
on the face of the earth. He had a gas expert, a Mr. Chamberlain, from
Petrolia, who told him that it was the biggest well in the world. Mr.
Chamberlain operated in Indiana, Kansas, and all over the United States,
and was the largest operator in the natural gas business.
In connection with their prospecting, mining and boring operations in
Athabaska district Mr. von Hamerstein’s parties use quantities of
natural gas for lighting purposes. They light their camps with it, and
do their blacksmithing with it, and it comes in very handy. They get the
gas at all kinds of depths, and get several veins of it. They never get
petroleum without gas, as they have to strike gas before they strike
petroleum, so there must be a large quantity of petroleum there.
According to Mr. von Hamerstein’s evidence upon this occasion, on Peace
river there is evidence of natural gas also, small amounts of tar and
also evidence of petroleum. That would be sixteen miles from Peace River
Landing, on an island called Tar island. The natural gas springs there
throw out small amounts of tar, and about thirty miles from the mouth,
on the north shore, there is also a spring. It is what Mr. von
Hamerstein called an oil spring or tar spring.
W. F. Bredin, M. L. A., before the Senate committee of 1907, stated that
for miles along Athabaska river the natural gas is all the time escaping
from the clay banks of the river and in the river itself, because all
across the river you can see the bubbles rising. The witness had lighted
some of the gas vents, and boiled his tea pail by hanging it over the
flame.
MORE IMPORTANT GAS SPRINGS.
According to Mr. McConnell, the most important natural gas spring in the
district occurs on the Athabaska at the mouth of Little Buffalo river.
The gas here forces its way up from the tar sands, through two hundred
and fifty feet of the Clearwater shales and issues from the surface in
numerous small jets distributed over an area fifty feet or more in
diameter. Some of the jets burn steadily when lighted, until
extinguished by heavy rains or strong wind, and afford sufficient heat
to cook a camp meal. A second spring was noticed on the left bank of the
Athabaska about thirteen miles below the mouth of Pelican river. The
volume of gas escaping here is less than at the mouth of Little Buffalo
river, and in order to reach the surface it is obliged to penetrate five
hundred and seventy feet of shales and sandstone which here overlie the
tar sands. Escaping jets of gas were also noted at several points
farther up the river; but these were mostly small and may possibly be
due to decaying vegetable matter. On Peace river natural gas issues from
the tar springs on Tar island, in small quantities.
Mr. McConnell adds:—“The natural gas springs have less value in
themselves at present than in the indications they afford of the
existence of petroleum beneath.”
In his introduction to Mr. G. A. Young’s descriptive sketch of the
geology and economic minerals of Canada (1909) Mr. R. W. Brock, Director
of the Geological Survey, wrote:—“Petroleum and natural gas are
obtained in Ontario; Alberta is also producing a large quantity of gas,
and will probably develop petroleum fields. . . . . The interior plain
(of the Canadian northwest) is underlain for the most part by
sedimentary rocks, chiefly of Cretaceous age, and containing coal,
building stones, clays, and cement materials. Natural gas over wide
areas and under great pressure has been tapped, and there is every
indication of a large oil field in the northern portion, at least, of
Alberta.”