International Bitumen Company Ltd.

During most of the time that he was active at Bitumount, Robert Fitzsimmons was Alberta’s only independent commercial oil sands developer who actually separated the oil sands and sold any products made from the resulting bitumen. He was an enthusiastic promoter and came up with a wide array of bitumen-based items to market. Among these were Ichthulene, a skin preparation, and Bitu-phalt, a roofing material. Fitzsimmons trademarked both these product names and had a graphic designer create unique identifiers for them.

In addition to these, Fitzsimmons proposed numerous other products, including paints, automobile engine coolants, lubricants, kerosene, gasoline, sealants and paving materials. Some of these were actually made and sold. To promote Bitumount and his various products, Fitzsimmons undertook extensive and vigorous sales trips. He had prospectuses, circulars and pamphlets printed, and published large ads in the newspapers of the cities he visited. Among his stops were Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago and London, England.

Fitzsimmons took a small wooden case of samples with him on these trips, so that he could show prospective investors exactly what he could produce from the oil sands. He must have been fairly effective, because over the years, a substantial amount of money was spent on wages, operating costs and construction materials—not to mention travel expenses.

In 1937, however, it all started to unravel when Fitzsimmons decided to add a small refinery to the Bitumount plant. To do so, he hired a petroleum engineer to provide a design and oversee the construction. Try as he might, he could not raise sufficient funds to cover the frugal budget he had set for the expansion.

He was desperate for real results from the completed refinery that he could pass along to prospective investors. Harry F. Everard, his engineer, could not get the plant up and running on his shoestring budget and left claiming he had not been paid in months.

Although W. E. Adkins, who later supervised the construction of the new plant at Bitumount, carried on the work started by Everard for the International Bitumen Company Ltd.’s plant in 1938, Fitzsimmons was in dire straits. Without convincing results, he could not sell any shares, and his project ground to a halt.