It was 1955, two years before the Town of Estevan could declare itself a city, but the qualifying population requirement of 5,000 had already been attained. The soon-to-be city administration was struggling to cope with a deteriorating infrastructure and finding housing for a booming oilpatch industry workforce and a growing senior population was an issue that was on the front pages of the Mercury and on top of a lot of priority lists.
Sound familiar?
Harry Nicholson, Estevan’s long-serving mayor, raised the alarm during the town’s early January council meeting. He reported that Estevan had spent over $100,000 on local improvements in 1954, more than any other year. They were going to have to be careful, even with an extensive construction season looming on the horizon.
Just as we face water and sewer issues in 2015, the public works team in 1955, was warning city aldermen that the town needed to build a new system for the delivery of potable water. Estevan needed a new pumping station that would come with a $240,000 price tag, which meant the City would have to issue a debenture to pay for it. That kind of cost could not be handled through general taxation. The mayor said water rates would not be raised, however, thanks to the fact that a number of new customers had been hooked up in the past couple of years.
Water service, council determined a few months later, would need to be extended across the railway tracks on Souris Avenue as far as the exhibition grounds in Hillside. This would allow Hillside subdivision residents an opportunity to hook up to the town’s water and sewer services. By doing that, it would also spur on further construction on the north side of town and open up 50 new lots for residential building.
There was a new nuisance ground (landfill) site being developed northeast of the newly developed Hillside-Scotsburn subdivision that would be capable of handling wet and dry garbage, which would answer another crying need.
There was also a recognized need for an “old folks home” in the swiftly growing energy capital of Saskatchewan, but so far, not much interest had been expressed on that topic. No organization was expressing an interest in stepping up to sponsor a local effort so the City administration and local citizen Frank Abbott, wondered out loud if maybe a local housing organization could be formed to take the lead. (More on that later.)
Just south of Estevan, residents in Noonan, North Dakota were signing up to advance plans for an international defence highway that would link the booming Midale oilfields to the emerging oil fields around Tioga N.D. The advocates pointed to the military importance of such a link that would automatically include the quickly expanding coal mining operations on both sides of the border. (It should be noted here that Estevan was still five or six years away from a construction plan that would lead to the commissioning of Boundary Dam Power Station and a huge increase in mining operations on this side of the border while coal fields near Lignite, N.D. slid to a slow decline in operations that led to eventual closure in favour of more lucrative coal mining operations in Wyoming).
The proponents of these highway links on the U.S. side, suggested this international route would fit in well with the ambitious cross-country highway program being promoted by President Dwight Eisenhower. The traffic at the Estevan highway port to Highway No. 2 and Noonan already registered 22,000 vehicles a year with expectations of more to come. Estevan’s representatives on this highway link team were Mayor Nicholson and Ald. Joe Mack.
Another sure sign of solid growth was the introduction of a fully automated telephone system in Estevan to replace the manual works. Telephone users would now be able to use the dial system to make their business and social calls. They wouldn’t have to use an operator to make the normal connections.
On the other general business and entertainment fronts, council determined there was a need to form a Golden Jubilee committee to mark the province’s 50th anniversary. William Outhwaite was appointed chairman of that group.
The Estevan Board of Trade, in raising their annual list of promises and concerns, said there was a lot of promise in a proposed sugar beet project in a nearby rural municipality while their other concerns were the need for the “old folks home,” and a lot of new housing to accommodate the booming oilpatch.
Speaking of the patch, the newspaper was filled with news on a weekly basis regarding new wells springing to life around the city.
Medium crude oil was found in three new wells drilled near Midale in early 1955, and the known boundaries of that emerging patch, were being extended based on these results. That decision was coupled with other successful drilling ventures in Huntoon that yielded six new wells.
Shell found oil at 4,664 feet and placed the site on a wait list for finishing. This well was less than two miles from their original discovery.
Dome Petroleum, North Midale and Sooner Petroleum were coming in with new wells, too. In fact Sooner had four successful wells with two more being drilled as the Mercury went to press in late January. The government declared well spacings had to be 80 acres apart at this stage of the game.
Wildcatters were finding oil near Frobisher with two successful wells coming in that were yielding light crude and Canadian Gulf Oil Co. was achieving success around Lampman. One well came in at 132 barrels over an 18-hour period on a three foot open hole. The oil registered at 42 degree light.
Socony Vacuum Oil spudded a wildcat project near these other successful sites and teamed with Central Leduc and Del Rio with another light oil discovery near Ratcliffe. Imperial Oil reported great success in their hunt for oil near Alameda and Alida.
With all that action in the patch, the rig hands were pouring into the town that was soon to be a city, and Estevan was still struggling to keep up with the demand for suitable, affordable housing. The few hotels in town were double-booking rooms based on the shift work schedules of the occupants.
Back on the public administration front, council determined some trees had to be planted around the new nuisance grounds north of Hillside, to improve the looks and screen the site from the rest of the town.
The local police and fire committee were reminded of the fact there needed to be more sidewalks built and some of those that were already built, needed to be repaired. It wasn’t made clear in the article as to why a police and fire committee were responsible for taking care of sidewalks, but in some instances, local governance can work in strange patterns. There was also a discussion held regarding the possibility of hiring a full-time fire chief.
The mayor let it be known he was less than pleased with the town’s newest street lighting project. Nicholson said the new luminaire system in the residential areas while costing more than the older system, were emitting less light. While expressing those thoughts, Nicholson said it was obvious streetlights were needed in the new residential areas.
Another civic service that needed to be provided was some serious dust control, especially on Souris Avenue and also on Second, Third and Fourth Streets, said council. Many of these streets needed to get fresh gravel, they said and culverts would need to be inserted prior to any paving program moving ahead.
Council agreed that improvements needed to be made to Woodlawn Park especially since there were expectations of some Jubilee celebrations being scheduled there later in the year.
Within the next couple of months, Estevan learned two new, but unnamed companies, were probably going to set down roots in Estevan within the year and Great West Coal Co. announced they were purchasing Western Dominion Coal.
As spring moved closer, three more development wells were drilled near Midale and Husky Oil arrived on the scene as a new player with their plans to drill and develop 14 wells in a 1955 program.
Hoskins-Sun landed a well near Frobisher at 4,741 feet and it was being tested for daily production in March of 1955.
As spring arrived, John Lee from the Regional Board of Health, approached the topic of the “old folks home” again, stating that, “the care of senior citizens and the chronically ill is the responsibility of the provincial government, not just local organizations.” He noted that no one had cared about care for the aged until the federal and provincial Old Age Services program was launched. By providing old age pensions and supplements, the senior governments had acknowledged that this is their responsibility, Lee suggested.
“But no one has assumed the task of building anything for them. Municipalities are being asked to do it, but they have no power of taxation for such projects,” he said. The regional boards might be able to do something on the building side, he suggested, because they might get some taxation powers, but at least two-thirds of the cost would still have to be borne by the provincial government.
So, as we suggested at the opening, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The same dilemmas that face the Energy City in 2015 faced the blossoming Energy City of 1955.
