Turner Valley Gas Plant

On Sunday June 18th Margarit and I met up with our friends Arturo and Sharon and headed south.  We were taking a five day road trip down to southern Alberta.  We knew of some locations that we wanted to explore for potential images for the Apparitions project.

On Sunday evening we checked into a hotel in Okotoks, went out for dinner, and then settled in for the evening.  On Monday morning, we headed 25km west to Turner Valley and the Turner Valley Gas Plant Historic Site.  I had made prior arrangements for an all day private tour of the site.  Fortunately the weather let up a little, and wasn't too bad.  All the way down on Sunday it rained most of the way.  We didn't get any rain on Monday, but it was cool and breezy and mostly overcast.

We had to complete a photographer's application to tour the site, and we had to sign waivers, and we had to pay for two interpreters to accompany us for the day, and a security deposit.  It actually took quite a bit of time through the spring months to connect with the right people and arrange this.  Some scenes from the movie Ghostbusters were shot here in 2020 or 2021 and the site was familiar with making arrangements to accommodate photographers and film crews.  It was not inexpensive, but it made the day so much more relaxed and easy and I'm glad we took the time to do it right.

Dustin and Darrell were great hosts, and they spent the day with us.  They unlocked all the buildings that we were permitted to access, and allowed us to photograph as long as we wanted to.  We ended up staying for about six hours.  They also offered us an explanation of how the site operated and what all the equipment was for.  The Dingman wells #1, #2 and #3 were drilled in the immediate area back around 1914.  The gas plant originally opened in the 1920's.  Many things were changed and added and modified over the years and the plant continued to operate until the 1980's.  It has been shut down ever since and was designated a Provincial and Federal Historic site.  Our guides both grew up in the area.  Dustin's father and grandfather worked at the plant and his family originally lived next door.  Darrell worked at the plant near the end of it's operation.  We got to tour the compressor building, the scrubber building, the gasoline plant, and one other building.

Unfortunately Margarit had a really sore knee and couldn't walk very well.  She had to stay behind in the truck and spent the day reading.  The rest of us toured the site and took quite a number of photographs.  I'm confident that I will end up with at least a couple of images for consideration in our Apparitions project.  At the very least it was a most enjoyable day.