Anglo American and Purity 99

Introduction 

Fortunately, we can enjoy tours of the Turner Valley Gas Plant because the facility has been conserved. Several other similar facilities once existed in the Turner Valley to Longview area. They are but memories now since all signs of surface installations were removed. 

Over time, photos and maps have been donated to the Turner Valley Oilfield Society. On a recent field trip to this historical area with men who worked at these “other” facilities a few comments and stories were recorded and articles later collected. 

Anglo-American & Purity 99 Facilities (aka Hartell Refinery) 

NOTE: Location was toured with A.E. (Sid) Robinson and Ron Link May 22, 2019 

Location: 
➢ Facilities were located approximately 1 mile south and ½ mile east of Hartell; legal location = 14-4-19-2W5M (see annotated topographic map). 

Facilities: 

➢ Anglo-American gas processing facilities (aka Mercury Absorption Plant) recovered light HC liquids (aka natural gasolene or raw condensate) from nearby gas wells using lean oil absorption. As there was no market for the processed natural gas it was initially flared. o Built during the depression in 1934, facilities included a bunkhouse, wash house, cook house (diner), laboratory and hall (now the Longview Hall)

• Heat and power for the processing plant was provided by 6 locomotive steam boilers
• A cooling water tower provided process cooling with water obtained via dams on a nearby creek (Tongue Creek)
• The plants operated 24/7/365 with operators working three 8 hr. shifts/day
• An explosion and fire occurred at the Mercury Plant in January 1953, a picture of which was featured in the Calgary Herald and included the following description:

“A close-up of the raging inferno which blazed unchecked for nearly 20 hours at the Gas & Oil Refineries Ltd. plant at Mercury Camp, seven miles south of Black Diamond. Five men were injured in the flames which started when natural gasoline from a broken production line leading to a storage tank in the north east corner of the 100 acre plant was ignited by hot bricks in the furnace of a crude unit. Damage estimates reach as high as $1,000,000. Force of the blast was felt in Okotoks 23 miles away, and windows were shaken in Turner Valley, seven miles away. The flames were finally extinguished during the night by the use of chemicals.” 

➢ A. H. (Albert) Mayland was the person credited with establishing this gas processing (absorption) plant via his company Gas & Oil Refineries Limited. This plant had many names including Mayland’s Hartell Absorption Plant. 
➢ In 1936 Gas & Oil Refineries Limited also established the adjacent Purity 99 facilities for further processing/storage/marketing of recovered liquids; some liquids were refined here (up to 2000 barrels/day) and some trucked to other Purity 99 refineries. Refined gasoline was marketed in Purity 99 gas stations (see panoramic photo of facilities donated by Christine Law). During WW2 the refinery also produced aviation fuel (avgas) for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. 
➢ The gas processing plant, refinery and liquid storage facilities were shut down in 1961 and dismantled in 1962/63 by a local maintenance company (Kenting). This work was supervised by Mr. Pete Peterson (a resident of Turner Valley). 

Residences, etc.: 

➢ Approximately 8 residences were located immediately east of the Purity 99 tank farm on a single street (see panoramic photo), some were duplexes. These residences were known locally as “Mill City” due to the nearby well named Mill City No. 1. 
➢ Mill City houses were originally bunkhouses used during plant construction & sat on timbers; only two had indoor plumbing. 
➢ The Anglo-American plant provided fresh water for the Mill City and Mercury Camp residences. 
➢ Several more residences (approximately 20) were located along the road going south from Mill City (see topo map). This area was referred to the “Mercury Camp” or just “Mercury” due to the nearby Mercury gas wells. 
➢ None of these houses had basements and thus could be easily relocated; indoor plumbing was added to some in the mid-1950’s. 
➢ Some of the families living in Mercury included Barnes, Lukenchuk, Link, Clark, Lees, Michelson, McKay, Davies, Law, Gall, Murray, Healy, Manning, Clark, Robinson and Scott. 
➢ A further half mile south along the roadway through Mercury is the Township correction line. The intersection of the east-west correction line and Highway 22 is known as “Sterling Corner” because Sterling Royalties owned the mineral rights in Section 33. 
➢ As shown on the topographic map, there were MANY houses in Section 4 including many from the Sterling corner east toward the school. 
➢ There was a primary school at the junction of the Sterling and Mercury roads. It was a one room school, grades 1-6 (see 1953 photo) and later becoming three, one room schools. These buildings can still be seen at this location. 
➢ For the primary school kids from Mercury Camp, it was over a half mile uphill to the Mercury school but most fun was the downhill trip home via bike, toboggan, etc.!! 
➢ The school for Grade 8+ students was located 1 ½ miles further south from the Mercury school across from what is known as Royalties. This school was a brick building built in 1938 and included students from Mill City, Mercury, Royalties and perhaps Longview. 
➢ This school was referred to as the “South Turner Valley High School”. It was a bi-level design with a concrete basement. Due to a declining number of students it was closed in about 1956 and later demolished. Thereafter students were bused to the high school in Black Diamond (the “North Turner Valley High School”) which is now the clubhouse for the Turner Valley Golf Course. Naturally there were always competitions between these schools! 
➢ Students often used horses to get to school so there were barns at both Mercury and Royalties schools. 
➢ There were numerous residences on both sides of Highway 22 at Royalties (aka Little New York). In addition to the South Turner Valley High School there was also a movie theatre, grocery store and lumber yard. 

Recollections of Christine Lund, Longview: 

➢ Christine and her family lived in Mill City. On the hill east of the Anglo-American plant she remembers picking saskatoon berries in the summer and tobogganing in the winter. 
➢ Her father came to the Hartell area in 1936 from working at the coal mines in Wayne, Alberta. Until getting job at the Purity 99 Refinery he often slept on the floor of a drilling rig "dog house" to stay warm. After securing work at the refinery his family joined him at Mill City. 
➢ There were lots of outside cats around Mill City and Mercury Camp to control the mouse population. 
➢ The Gallup grocery store in Little Chicago (Longview) ran a monthly bill and would often deliver groceries at night after the store was closed. Also, Hutterites often passed though Mill City & Mercury Camp selling vegetables, chickens, etc. door-to-door. 
➢ Some men were big game hunters which helped feed their families and fishing was also quite popular. In addition to the Highwood river there was a dam on Tongue Creek west of Hartell (see topo map). It was stocked with fish and known locally as “Jews” dam. It was washed out during spring runoff flooding in 2005. 
➢ The hall at Mill City was volunteer built and always busy with dances, card games, school graduations, Christmas concerts, etc. After relocation it is now the Longview Hall. 
➢ It cost 25 cents to see a movie at the Royalties theatre, 15 cents for the movie and 10 cents for candy or comics. This theatre is now Marv’s Soda Shop in Black Diamond. 
➢ Local kids were often hired by local farmers/ranchers during the spring calving season...the best of reasons for missing school. Jobs for kids were plentiful during WW2 as many local men had joined the armed services. 
➢ There were always plenty of trucks coming and going from the Purity 99 refinery, so hitchhiking was very common, often including school kids mornings and afternoons. 
➢ Teachers often taught multiple grades and strict rules were common including bathroom breaks at recesses only as toilets were all outside (outhouses). 
➢ For Christine there were only 3 days without detention during Grade 9 which was excellent for getting homework finished and avoiding sports! 
➢ D-day in 1946 was celebrated by residents marching through Mill City & Mercury Camp banging pots & pans and waving flags. 
➢ There were six big flares in the Turner Valley production area:

• At the BA Plant east of Longview 
• At the Highwood river west of Longview 
• At the Anglo-American facilities 
• At “3 Plant” west of Hartell 
• At Turner Valley (Hell’s Half Acre) 
• At Home Oil facilities near Millarville 

➢ There was also a settlement on the other side of the Highwood River west of Longview known as Little Philadelphia. 

Author – A. Lambden, P.Eng. 

MILL CITY (as remembered by Christine Lund & Marie Scott, July 2019) 

When Granny & I moved to Mercury in Nov. 1945 these were the families living in the houses there at that time. 

Starting in the north (east?) end the houses were built by the company as duplexes, the same colour as the bunkhouses. In some cases one family could have the whole duplex when occupants of the other half moved away. Some photos show these houses white in colour with red roofs. 

This was called Mill City, the houses were laid out like this: