Fernie & Elk Valley Culture Guide Issue 4 - Spring 2017 | Page 17

RESOURCE HERITAGE
The Fernie Oil Derrick
The last standing wooden oil derrick
in BC towers over Fernie's Highway 3
Visitor Centre on the eastern entrance
to Fernie. It has been preserved as
a memorial to the area’s resource
heritage, a welcome to visitors, and a
visible landmark for residents
returning home.
The metal components used to
construct the Fernie Derrick are from
Akamina #1, the first oil well drilled in
BC in 1907 by the Royal Canadian Oil
Company. The components were also
used for Akamina #2 in 1908 before
being moved to Fernie and rebuilt on
the present site in 1984 following a
salvage mission by Dave Yager.
Transporting large pieces of heavy
machinery into the Akamina and Sage
Creek areas of the Flathead Valley
by horse and cart could only begin
after new roads had been cut into the
wilderness. Riverside locations were
required to provide water for the
massive steam boilers used to power
the newly constructed sawmills. These
produced the timbers to build the
derricks, and the bunkhouses needed
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for the construction teams. The
locations would also have been essential
as a fresh water and food source for
the crews.
Akamina #1 was drilled to a depth of
1200ft before being abandoned so
that the equipment could be used to
construct Akamina #2, which achieved
a depth of 600ft before also being
abandoned. At both sites, tools were
lost at the bottom of the wells; a
foreshadowing of the hopes, dreams,
and even lives that would be lost by the
many hardworking pioneers who worked
on the rigging crews. In total, 23 drilling
rigs and oil wells were constructed
in Southeastern BC between 1907
and 1930; however, no commercial
quantities of oil were ever found. Now
all that remains are abandoned well
sites and the ghosts of an industry that
found prosperity elsewhere.
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