Over the years this column has described many attempts in Wellington County to drill for or attempt to recover oil and gas.
The earliest of those so called “discoveries” dates back to the late 1850s, when oil supposedly seeped from the ground on Elora’s main street. The latest, at least that I am aware of, were attempts to drill deep oil wells in Puslinch and elsewhere in Wellington County and adjoining areas in the 1960s.
Those wells succeeded only in recovering some salt water and in depleting the bank accounts of several investors.
Recently I came upon a reported “oil discovery” at the eastern edge of the circulating area of this paper, in portions of Erin Township and the region east of there, in the vicinity of Inglewood and Caledon. The firm pursuing this venture was known as the Dover Oil Company, which operated, through some financial associates from a Toronto office on Adelaide Street East under the name of the Securities Sales Service.
In 1921 the Dover firm began negotiating oil leases from property owners in the area from Erin Township to Caledon and Inglewood. As might be expected, the company’s activity generated a great deal of excitement, with residents predicting immense wealth for anyone able to cash in. People regaled their neighbours with tales of men and women becoming overnight millionaires.
Such talk, of course, helped the company greatly in its activities to sell stock in the firm and to negotiate further leases. Then, as now, there were a number of very shady firms in the oil business, but Dover seemed to have something of a track record, with significant oil leases in southwestern Ontario and a few producing gas wells in Lambton County, which had been the first commercial petroleum-producing area in North America.
In the early spring of 1922, Dover sunk its first wells in the Caledon Hills, in the vicinity of Inglewood. Soon there were reports of discoveries of natural gas, of a very pure type, and supposedly in commercial quantities.
Whether well-founded or not, those reports created a fresh stir of public interest and investment dollars. The firm followed up by drilling larger and deeper wells over a wider area into Erin Township on the west.
The firm’s geologists explained the terrain of the area promised large quantities of both gas and oil, and that they expected to make major discoveries at depths of 700 to 800 feet, but cautioned that their estimate was speculative.
There was no doubt gas would be discovered, the firm stated, because it had already been found in the area. The presence of oil, they emphasized, was more speculative. The display of caution served the company well. It made the executives seem more honest, and helped to further augment new investment.
By the first of May 1922 major discoveries seemed imminent. The company by then had leases on more than 900 acres of land, and rival firms were sniffing around the area. Dover itself was in negotiation for the construction of pipelines to transport the gas and oil to refineries and retail customers.
At the same time came an announcement that Dover’s last large block of shares would by placed on the market that month, and prospective buyers could buy into the promised oil field by dealing directly with the Securities Sales Service at their second-floor office on Adelaide Street.
Augmenting that effort were a group of salesmen “of undoubted merit and sterling character,” according to a company brochure. They made a door-to-door canvas of eastern Wellington County and areas to the east of there, selling Dover stock to gullible individuals, or more precisely, greedy ones.
Ontario’s petroleum production in 1922 was minuscule. There were some 3,500 wells in production that year, virtually all in Middlesex, Essex and Lambton Counties, and producing about 165,000 barrels. Production had been declining year by year. Nevertheless, potential new commercial fields invariably excited much interest. Several companies were conducting searches for new fields, and the federal government offered a bounty of a cent-and-a-half per gallon for Canadian petroleum.
Dover continued to drill through the first half of 1922. By June 1 of that year they had drilled down about 550 feet at Inglewood, and found what they reported as an ample flow of gas at that level. This was by far the largest flow reported to that date in any of the new wells in that area. Nevertheless, the company considered it to be a marginal flow at best for commercial exploitation, and their drills continued to churn away.
By August the well had been extended down to the 1,450-foot level, but in the absence of new major discoveries the company stopped extending its expensive hole. After internal discussion, Dover executives decided to plug the well in December of 1924.
In the meantime, other companies had entered the field. In 1924, Caledon Natural Gas Fields Limited sunk a hole to about 650 feet before abandoning the attempt. Other companies continued through the 1920s. One drilled three wells in 1927 in the so-called Caledon field. None of those efforts resulted in any potential for commercial production, but most struck small pockets of natural gas.
There was a fresh wave of interest in the rest of Wellington County during these years. Several firms took out leases on various parcels, but no large-sale drilling attempts resulted. Among the lease holders were firms with names such as Canadian Dutch Oils, Petro Oil and Gas, and Regal Oil Corporation.
Other firms were active north and west of Wellington County, and their efforts kept interest at an elevated level.
Perhaps most significant was actual production in the Hepworth Gas Field in Bruce County. That formation produced natural gas that was exploited by a handful of property owners in the area, but the flow of gas proved insufficient for full-scale commercial exploitation.
Canadian Oil Fields Limited had great expectations for a couple of wells the firm drilled near Shelburne, but in the end they were disappointed. Another hopeful operator drilled near Bronte, with disappointing results, and another discovered oil on Manitoulin Island, but not in exploitable quantities.
Despite disappointments in the 1920s, oil men would continue to return to Wellington County from the 1930s until the 1990s era, drilling, or at least signing farmers to lease agreements, and keeping their fingers crossed.
To date no one has discovered commercially viable quantities of oil or gas, but there are people who are still convinced that petroleum might be discovered in large quantities here.
The subject continues to be a fascinating one for historians, and for those who are fascinated with stories of broken dreams, slick commercial operators, and men who are convinced that they have a superior working knowledge of local geology.
It is unlikely that petroleum exploration projects will not continue into the future.
For clarification, the Dover Oil Company described here is not connected with a later firm operating under that name.
The present Dover Oil is an operator in the tar sands development in Alberta, and is connected in part with Chinese interests. This firm was established in 2010. The old Dover Oil was one of dozens of petroleum firms from the 1920s that have been largely forgotten today.