Key Number:	HS 32294
Site Name:	Langevin Discovery Wells
Other Names:
Site Type:	0727 - Industrial/Manufacturing - Oil Well

Location

ATS Legal Description:

			Twp	Rge	Mer
			15	10	4

Address:	near Alderson
Number:	N/A
Street:	N/A
Avenue:	N/A
Other:
Town:
Near Town:

Media

Type	Number	Date	View	Source

Architectural

Style:
Plan Shape:
Storeys:
Foundation:
Superstructure:
Superstructure Cover:
Roof Structure:
Roof Cover:
Exterior Codes:
Exterior:	1 bunkhouse, 1 tool shack, 1 outhouse.
Interior:	N/A
Environment:	Alderson siding on CPR main line, 34 miles west of Medicine Hat,
Condition:	The site consists of 3 CPR service buildings and two underground wells. The service structures are of no historical importance and will likely be replaced in the near future. The well sites are undisturbed.
Alterations:	N/A

Historical

Construction:	Construction Date:
Drilled - Langevin No. 1 Drilled - Langevin No. 2 Capped - Langevin No. 2	1883/01/01 1884/01/01 1954/01/01
Usage:	Usage Date:
Railway siding Gas Well	1883/01/01
Owner:	Owner Date:
Province of Alberta Forestry, Lands and Wildlife Canadian Pacific Limited	1911/04/26

Architect:	N/A
Builder:	N/A
Craftsman:	N/A
History:	Site is a railway siding with several buildings of no historical significance. Two wells are located about 12 feet north of the tracks and are underground. Only the wells are under consideration for designation. In December of 1883, a drilling crew under contract to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company drilled a well for water at Langevin siding when they encountered natural gas. In January 1884, the gas caught fire and destroyed the derrick and injured two men. Later in 1884, a second well was sunk, using gas from the first to fire the boiler. This second well, commonly known as 'No. 2 Langevin' was placed on production in the fall of 1884. The well was abandoned in the mid 1930s due to seepage and was permanently capped in 1954. Langevin No. 2 was the first well drilled in Alberta for the express purpose of utilizing natural gas as a fuel and signaled the beginning of the ceramic industry in southern Alberta. * * * Alderson Gas Well Late in 1883 construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad mainline continued past the town of Medicine Hat on its way to meet with the Pacific Coast section two years later at Craigellachie, British Columbia. Periodically, along the roadbed of the right-of-way, the construction gangs were joined by C.P.R. drilling crews in search of reliable supplies of fresh water for the workmen, for the various townsites that were located along the line, and, most importantly, for the great steam engines that were the heart of the railway network. The drilling of the water wells also served an ancillary, although important function in providing the Geological Survey of Canada with vital data on Canada's shallow geomorphology in the vicinity of the C.P.R. mainline. In the case of the drilling of 'C.P.R. No.1' and 'No.2 Langevin', thirty-four miles west of Medicine Hat, even the crude record of the strata kept by drill crews proved invaluable to the Survey when the first hole sunk at Langevin Station struck gas at 1120 feet. The discovery prompted the Survey to send one of its pre-eminent geologists, R.G. McConnell, to monitor the proceedings. He arrived in December 1883, shortly after the crew had encountered the gas pocket and found the driller proceeding with their quest for water, but working only during the daylight hours because of the danger of fire and explosion. On January 8, 1884, with the drill resting at 1155 feet, the worst fears of the crew were realized when the well exploded. The rig burned to the ground seriously injuring two of the workers. The severe climate had forced the drillers to erect a temporary wood frame shelter around the steam engine that powered the drill. To fend off the cold, the shack was heated by a stove and subsequent reports of the accident attributed the ignition of the well to the flame in the heater. One man was severely burned and another, who was forced to leap to the ground, suffered fractures to both legs. Presumably, the explosion was caused not by the pressure of the well itself, but from a build up of gas inside the housing since the blowout was extinguished without comment or description. The fact that the gas was mixed with a minor flow of water may also have contributed to the ease with which it was put out. Although the C.P.R. crew could have moved one or two miles up or down the rail in order to avoid the gas in their quest for useable and drinkable water, they unstead sand a second well no more than eight feet from the first. Clearly, they were interested in tapping this new and convenient form of energy. In fact, before the original well was capped off, the seeping gas was piped to the new rig to power the drilling operation. It was the first well specifically drilled for the purposes of gas production. According to G.M. Dawson of the Survey, the wells, did not yield any sufficient quantity of good water, though small flows were met with at several levels. They have, however, demonstrated the very important fact that a large supply of natural combustible gas exists in this district, at depths of 900 feet and over... (and) it is probable that a similar supply will be met with over a great area of this part of the Northwest, and that it may become in the future a factor of economic importance. Dawson's words proved to be prophetic. The industrial economy of the region, based as it was upon the mass production of ceramic brick and tile, was made possible by this abundant and readily accessible source of cheap fuel. In October 1884, it was noted that the second well was 'being utilized for fuel... (in the Section House for) both cooking and heating stoves, no other fuel being required for either.' Within the decade a vital clay products industry had sprung up in Medicine Hat. Obviously larger sources, with better head pressures and more sophisticated distribution equipment, serviced the massive plants that were constructed in and around the town, but C.P.R. No. 2 Langevin displayed an amazing longevity for such as early discovery. After the great wave of European immigration after 1900, Langevin siding became a small centre of German settlement and was renamed Carlstadt. The C.P.R. attempted to lay out a townsite on the north side of the mainline where the wells were located, which would have enabled them to make relatively easy connections to the homes of the new settlement; but the settlers were farmers fist and urbanites second. When water was finally found south of the tracks, some distance from the two gas wells, the newcomers defied the wishes of the Company and built south of the line where they had better access to the water than to the gas. Although the Company had laid pipe under the tracks to the new station, they consistently refused to tamper any further with the roadbed in order to service the town. The gas well continued to serve only the ancillary buildings of the siding itself. Ultimately, the townsite came to be known as Alderson as the wave of chauvinism that swept the country during the First World War forced the town to erase the name of Carlstadt. Eventually even Alderson shrank to nothing when agricultural services were located elsewhere along the mainline. The well itself was abandoned in the mid-1930s. Seeping gas had caused a rather frightening explosion in Medicine Hat and railroad officials became uneasy about the poorly monitored gas flow at Alderson. The Bridge and Building Department was commissioned with the task of sealing the well. Their lack of expertise and reliance on a 'few wheelbarrows full of cement, ' however, left the fifty year old well seeping water and gas. Further efforts to cap the well were no more sophisticated or any more successful. Only an increasing seepage problem and the pressure of the Alberta Oil and Gas Conservation Board (E.R.C.B.) forced the Company to embark on a major reabandonment programme. In the summer of 1954, over two and a half months of work by the reabandonment crew was required to seal off the well. It was felt that the pressure used to inject the concrete would seal the extensive fissures that extended in some cases over twenty feet from the well head, as well as the hole that remained under the casing of well No.1. Ultimately, the Alderson field became another of the many gas producers in the Medicine Hat region of the Province, but it was Alderson No.1 that signaled the potential that the area had as a producer of cheap, efficient, and reliable industrial and domestic energy. Over the last two years Pan-Canadian Petroleum, a subsidiary of the C.P.R., has conducted historical research and has sponsored an archaeological investigation in order to establish the precise location of the two wells. This they completed in the summer of 1980. It is their intention to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the parent company in 1981 by erecting a distinctive commemorative cairn near the site. The site itself will be marked by two stainless steel rods inserted into the ground, one at each well head. * * * DRAFT PRESS RELEASE Edmonton, Alberta December 7, 1981 PROVINCE DECLARES THE SITE OF ALBERTA'S FIRST NATURAL GAS WELLS A PROVINCIAL HISTORIC RESOURCE The site of Alberta's first natural gas wells has been designated a Provincial Historic Resource, it was announced by the Hon. Mary J. LeMessurier, Minister of Culture. At Langevin Siding in December 1883, a drilling crew under contract to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, accidentally encountered natural gas while searching for a reliable source of water. The following year, a second well was sunk approximately eight feet from the first specifically for the purpose of gas production. Known, as C.P.R. Langevin No. 1 and C.P.R. Langevin No. 2, these wells demonstrated the potential of southern Alberta as a producer of cheap, efficient and reliable industrial and domestic energy.

Internal

Designation Status:	Designation Date:
Provincial Historic Resource	1981/12/16

Register:	N/A

Links

Internet:
Alberta Register of Historic Places:	4665-0120