Growth and Decline

The coming in of Turner Valley Royalties No. 1 in June 1936 sparked an economic recovery in the Turner Valley area. Renewed drilling created a fresh demand for workers and brought an end to the high unemployment of the Great Depression years. As was the case in the 1920s, the type of communities that emerged ranged widely and included work camps and temporary squatter settlements as well as more enduring communities. The influx of people revitalized old communities and contributed to the growth of new ones, including two small settlements with grandiose names— Little Chicago and Little New York.

Little Chicago was the informal name given to the booming community that grew northwest of Longview Hill after the 1936 oil strike. The settlement's official name was Royalties due to its close

proximity to the well, but the nickname Little Chicago was more commonly used in the area. The specific origins of the name are disputed, but "Little Chicago" certainly reflected the frenetic pace of growth and development in the community. Little Chicago was soon home to boarding houses, restaurants, garages, shops and a Hudson's Bay Company store. By late 1938 approximately one thousand people were resident, many of whom resided in the temporary, mobile housing of the type that characterized the settlement boom further north in the late 1920s. The settlement continued to grow during World War Two, but could not survive the end of the region's petroleum boom. When oil production shifted elsewhere in the province after 1947, Little Chicago went into decline as people and businesses left the community.

A similar story played out further south near the banks of the Highwood River with the emergence of Longview, otherwise known as Little New York. The first business on the site that would become Little New York was a restaurant operated by Tom Kee, who moved to the area from High River in 1936. Other entrepreneurs were quick to take advantage of the new prosperity as well, opening businesses to cater to the influx of oil workers and their families. Within two years, Little New York's main street was home to restaurants, boarding houses, stores, garages and recreation facilities. Little New York was smaller than its sister settlement, home to approximately six hundred people in 1938. Nonetheless it managed to survive the end of the petroleum boom and in 1964 officially incorporated as the village of Longview.

The older settlements of Black Diamond and Turner Valley also saw a significant influx of people during this period. The populations of both communities more than doubled in less than a decade after 1936, with over 2,500 people resident in Black Diamond and Turner Valley by

1945. This demographic surge reflected the increased production at the Turner Valley plant during World War Two, at which time demand for natural gas was extremely high. Like Little New York and Little Chicago, the two communities suffered population declines after 1947, but the continued operation of the Turner Valley plant attracted enough workers to keep both municipalities viable. Black Diamond incorporated as a town in 1958, while Turner Valley did the same in 1977.

Black Diamond, Turner Valley and Longview are the most enduring reminders of the enormous impact that the petroleum boom had on settlement patterns in the Turner Valley region. Thousands of people passed through the region in search of jobs or other economic opportunities. Many of the settlements that emerged were fleeting, reflecting the boom and bust nature of the industry and the mobility of the workforce. By the 1950s, the population had significantly declined, and many of the settlements that had spread throughout the region in the previous decades had disappeared.