Growing Up in the Oil Patch. John Schmidt J.
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Growing Up in the Oil Patch
Copyright © 1989 John Schmidt and Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Natural Heritage, P.O. Box 69, Station H, Toronto, Ontario M4C 5H7.
Every effort has been made by the author to obtain permission for all material reproduced in this book. If any omissions have occurred, corrections will be made in future reprints.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Schmidt, John, 1923-
Growing up in the oil patch
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-920474-57-8
1. Martin, Frosty. 2. Phillips, Tiny.
3. Petroleum industry and trade — Canada — History.
4. Gas industry — Canada — History. 5. Petroleum workers — Canada — Biography. I. Title.
| HD9574.C32S3 1989 | 338.2'728'0924 | C89-095071-7 |
Photo on page i — (L to R) Frosty Martin, Fat Gloyd, Eugene Coste, Garrett Green and Tiny Phillips.
Photo on page ii — A.P. (Tiny) Phillips Glenbow Archives, Calgary, Alberta.
Composition: Video Text Inc.
Design: Steve Eby
Editorial Consultant: Elizabeth Lancaster
Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Printing Limited
Contents
Chapter 1 It All Started in Pennsylvania
Chapter 2 Apprenticeship in Findlay Ohio
Chapter 3 Transporting Nitro to Pelee Island
Chapter 4 Over Lake Erie Ice to Leamington
Chapter 5 A Contract with Eugene Coste
Chapter 6 The Langham, Saskatchewan Adventure
Chapter 7 29 Million Cubic Feet a Day
Chapter 8 British Investment in Bow Island Gas
Chapter 9 Medicine Hat—All Hell for a Basement
Chapter 10 Joseph Grant; Frosty and Tiny’s Nemesis
Chapter 11 J.D. McGregor’s Prairie Development Scheme
Chapter 12 The Alamo Hotel at Suffield
Chapter 13 Wetaskiwin and Camrose
Chapter 14 Difficulties at Viking
Chapter 15 Oil Strike Near Olds
Chapter 16 George E. Buck’s Heavenly Kingdom
Chapter 17 The Salted Oil Well at Turner Valley
Chapter 18 A.F.A. Coyne’s Fellowship With Farmer
Chapter 19 The Conspiracy Against Coyne
Chapter 20 A New Start in Texas
Chapter 21 Martin and Decker Teamed Up
Chapter 22 Frosty the Flying Salesman
Chapter 23 The Long Beach Harbour Development
Chapter 24 Frosty Martin the Innovator
Chapter 25 Frosty Martin the Inventor
Chapter 26 Tiny Phillips Wildcats at Slave Lake
Chapter 1
It All Started in Pennsylvania
In 1958, Calgary was a real cow town and the drinking laws were not yet civilized. The big-spending oil crowd, around town as the result of the opening of the big Leduc field, were driven crazy because no-one could take a female companion into a beer parlour. There were no bars serving liquor. If a woman wanted to help drink Alberta into solvency, she had to go into a beer parlour marked “Ladies.”
There was one exception to these archaic laws and that was the Elks Club. A couple could drink together in public in the Elks ladies’ lounge, providing both were suitably dressed at all material times.
I thought I had arrived at the top of Cow Town’s social heap one afternoon when a Hussar rancher, Jack Murray, invited me to join him and his wife at the Elks Club. Murray had a well-stuffed wallet that day, as he had just sold one of the biggest steers ever marketed at the Calgary Stock Yards: a 2,400-pound grassfed