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