Boom Town

A Tulsa oilman walked into the office of Edmonton's Finance Commissioner one day last week and said: "Oil's sure pulling this town out of the dumps." Said Commissioner John Hodgson: "You've got it wrong, man. We were booming before. Oil has just doubled the headaches."

In the two years since the nearby Leduc oil strike opened up Canada's biggest oil area, Commissioner Hodgson has had headaches aplenty. His new city budget, just completed, calls for $26 million (up from a prewar $9,000,000). Edmonton has never really caught its breath since the war, when it was the supply base for the $135 million Canol project, the $114 million Alaska Highway and the $25 million northern airports development.

Home for Veterans. After the war, 16,000 out of Alberta's 40,000 veterans decided to make Edmonton their home. Then the postwar oil boom hit. Into Edmonton moved almost 100 oil companies (mostly American) to base a province-wide search for oil. They set up shop where they could, in Quonset huts, army barracks and service stations. Imperial Oil, the biggest operator, put up an $8,700,-ooo refinery, has a $40 million pipeline to Regina in the works. McColl-Frontenac plans a $10 million refinery.

Oil workers flocked into the city that sprawls on both sides of the wide, muddy North Saskatchewan River, in 16 months helped boost its population 8,000. Edmonton figured on a further boost of 10,000 this year, to a record 136,000.

Building more homes in a month than it did in a prewar year, Edmonton was still busting at the seams. With 1,000 families in temporary war-built shelters, another 500 in weathered barracks, it was short at least 5,000 homes. It was building 30 new churches.

Taverns for Men. By bus the heavy-booted, heavy-spending "roughnecks" come into town from the Leduc, Redwater and Woodbend fields. Mostly they ignore the seven night spots, which provide setups and a slot beneath the table for the customer's bottle. Instead, they drop in at a men's tavern for a quiet beer, or queue at the movie houses. Edmonton's five department stores get a hefty share of the $10 million that oil has added to the city's payroll (up to a record $60 million).

Fresh oilfields were coming in. The latest well, Imperial Oil's Schoepp No. 1, at the Golden Spike field only 18 miles from town, had set a Canadian record with its 545-ft. thick pay zone (oil-bearing rock). Edmonton had reserved the right to drill for oil within its 42-square-mile city limits. Said Commissioner Hodgson: "We're convinced there is oil below us, but in our spot we don't have to gamble. We can wait until the wells reach the boundaries, then make a deal." That, he figured optimistically, would help make Edmonton one of the richest cities in the world.

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