The First Oil Well in Western Canada National Historic Site of Canada commemorates the 1902 oil strike in what is now Waterton Lakes National Park

Waterton Lakes National Park

Waterton Lakes National Park is a national park located in the southwest corner of Alberta, Canada, and borders Glacier National Park in Montana, USA. Waterton was Canada's fourth national park, formed in 1895 and named after Waterton Lake, in turn after the Victorian naturalist and conservationist...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

. Drilled in 1902, the well was the first productive oil well in the western Canadian provinces.

The well was drilled by John Lineham, whose Rocky Mountain Development Company had a mineral claim on the land along Oil Creek (now Cameron Creek), a region of natural oil seeps. The area had been drilled unsuccessfully for oil in the early 1890s, without results. Lineham's well was drilled by a wood "Canadian Pole" rig powered by a 35hp steam engine. The Lineham Discovery Well #1 struck oil at 311 metres (1,020.3 ft), producing saleable quantities of oil at the rate of 300 oilbbl/d. However, the well casing quickly failed, and the bore became jammed with debris and drilling tools. It was cleared in 1904, and a pump was installed. Drill tools again jammed the well and the well was abandoned. The tools remain visible in the bore. Total production was about 8000 barrels (1,271.9 m³) of oil.

Production had dwindled before the well was blocked. Further explorations in the area yielded nothing useful, but general exploration in more northerly portions of Alberta yielded the Turner Valley field in 1914. The Oil Creek strike is believed to be the result of oil seepage along fault planes in the Lewis Overthrust

Lewis Overthrust

The Lewis Overthrust is a geologic fault structure of the Rocky Mountains within Glacier National Park in Montana, USA and Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, as well as into Lewis and Clark National Forest. It provides scientific insight into geologic processes happening in other...

, in which oil originating in younger Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 rock has moved upwards through older Pre-Cambrian rock that has been forced over the oil-bearing layers. More oil in the Waterton area was eventually discovered at the Pincher Creek oil field in 1948.

A small monument, depicting a stylized drill rig, was placed over the well in 1968. The site was designated a site of national significance in 1965.

External links

• First Oil Well in Western Canada National Historic Site of Canada, Parks Canada site