Practically Everybody Interested in Oil

Wow!  I'm not sure which font size was used for this headline in the Reston Recorder on February 21, 1952 but it couldn't have been overlooked! You can click here to browse the 1952 papers online and see various stories about drilling activity, rumours of strikes and reports of dry holes.  Seventy years ago, the Reston area was agricultural but that was about to change.  With the exploration for oil around Virden in the late 40's and a big discovery in 1951, Reston and area residents were excited to see if the deposits went further south.   The headline making well was located on the farm of George and Ellen (Wilson) Walker in the Prairie Rose District  on SE 21-7-28.  Although the well was soon capped and did not produce as anticipated, the Walkers took a trip back home to Scotland, 44 years after coming to Canada. Can you just imagine to tales they could tell their old school chums of their experiences in Canada? Their real treasure would have been their five children, many grandchildren and today the multitude of descendants who have made their own marks in the world. 

Caption: Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Walker Sr. reading the news of the spectacular oil strike on their farm.  The strike set up a blaze of publicity which made the couple known from coast to coast. The outcome of the well is in doubt, but in any case, the couple have benefitted.  Sale of half royalties amounted to $6500, enough to pay off the mortgage, and leave a few thousand in the bank. 

Photo Courtesy of the Winnipeg Free Press.  March 1952

Gwen Simms and Jim Milliken 1947

I do have a physical copy of this historic Reston newspaper thanks to my cousin Marilee.  Her Mom Gwen (Simms) Milliken had handwritten a note on the top of it to her Uncle Bill Sinclair from Oak River. 

Dear Bill, This country may be “stoney and scarce of bluffs”, but shows signs of much greater things underneath.

 I saved this paper especially for you as I knew you’d be interested in hearing it and had said the same thing.  Love your soon to be wealthy niece, Gwennie

There was no doubt of some ongoing joke between the two about Jim's family choosing  stoney and treeless homesteads in Pipestone rather than God's Country at her family's home at Oak River. 😊 

The title for today's blog post comes from an article that I stumbled across on the Peels Prairie Website here .  It was clipped from a 1952 newspaper in Irma, Alberta which is now a tiny community 90 minutes east of Edmonton. I'm not sure why they picked up the story written for the Brandon Sun by John McNaughton but everybody is interested to read our own history from another perspective.  Practically everybody at least.