Longview Lull: Little Chicago-Royalties
Longview Lull: Table of Contents
This is all that is left of Little Chicago. The monument is about 2 km north of the village of Longview, on the west side of the Cowboy Trail. The location is now a gas plant called Little Chicago but it was once a thriving business centre.
It is difficult for anyone driving down the Cowboy Trail, north of Longview, to envision that there was at one time a clamouring oil town on both sides of the road. Stuffed into a little more than two square miles, a town called Little Chicago, later called Royalties, developed and created around more than 20 oil wells.
All that is left a is a monument. The display starts with the narrative of the discovery of oil and gas in the Turner Valley Oilfields. When the Dingman №1 well blew in on May 14, 1914, there was incredible fervour. The oilfields declined when investigation moderated and oil was found at Leduc, Alberta on February 13, 1947. In 1936, close to the south end of the Turner Valley Oilfields, the Royalties №1 well blew in. In a few weeks, a town sprung to life close to the well. Businesses started, homes and shacks rose up, and oil labourers and their families moved in. More wells were drilled.
The view from here is stunning.
More links:
Lots more pictures: http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/histoires_de_chez_nous-community_stories/pm_v2.php?id=record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000814
Commemoration: http://www.petroleumhistory.ca/history/littleChicago.html
