1884-08-11 Natural GAS

In August 1884, a reporter from the Toronto Globe was sent put to investigate the tales of natural gas deposits found in the area of Albion Mills, and further south of there in Barton Township.

At the head of the stream later to be known as the Red Hill Creek, there was a ravine where the waters of the creek ran over the edge of the escarpment, Albion Falls. Located strategically to take advantage of the power generated by the falling water was a mill.

The Globe reporter left the following word picture of his visit to the Albion Falls area:

“In a pretty ravine in the mountain side, about three miles east of Hamilton, stands the flouring mill known as Cook’s Mill. On the mountain’s brow nearby is the little post village of Albion Mills. From the mountain’s base, the country stretches away in rectangular fields of yellow grain, patches of green pasture, and clumps of trees of a darker green.

“The smoke from the iron works and the other factories at Hamilton rises in a cloud over the city, and the waters of Burlington bay and the lake, and the inlets that steal up into the land, sparkle in the sun.

“Away down the lake, a couple of schooners drift slowly away to the south shore, and the scene has in itself all the variety of town and country, land and water. A more picturesque scene one seldom sees than that from the mountain’s brow anywhere within half a dozen miles of Hamilton.” ¹

¹ “Light From Below : The Search for Wealth Stored Underground”

Hamilton Spectator. August 11, 1884 (Reprinted from the Toronto Globe).

Of course, the reporter was told of the story of the suicide the ravine:

“This ravine has the romance, and its maiden rock from which an Indian girl threw herself 100 feet into the chasm below. This was for love, of course – the only thing which is really effective in inducing people to smash themselves.

“There are several cliffs about Hamilton making a similar claim to celebrity.”¹

The reporter then went inside the mill beside the Red Hill Creek :

“Cook’s Mill has stood at the head of the ravine for very many years, and has ground the wheat for the farmers in that neighborhood since the middle-aged men of today were boys. All this time the mill has been lighted by flaming jets of gas from four pipes which lead from a fissure in the rock. White-faced millers have come and gone, and the boys who played about the mill in the olden days, and climbed the rocky sides of the ravine for wild flowers and fruits and birds’ nests, have grown up to be bearded men, and bring to the mill wheat they have raised on their own farms.

“But the steady, soft light from those old and rusted pipes has never changed. For thirty years, the flaming, smokeless gas has flowed for the miller’s benefit, and has never been extinguished by night or day. It needed not attention, no care but mother nature sent it forth to light the miller at his work. The miller was thankful, but went to little trouble to take further advantage of the bounty of nature.”¹

The reporter then went down to the base of the escarpment, followed the Red Hill Creek for a short distance:

“Down the ravine, tumbling over the mossy rocks, rushes a little stream, which is joined just a little below a still smaller stream which runs along the plateau and through another ravine a short distance west of the mill.

“Standing beside the stream, one hears a bubbling, gurgling sound, which differs slightly from the ripple of water over the pebbles. A look at the creek shows that the noise is caused by bubbles of air or gas rising to the surface. A lighted match touched to one of these bubbles, as it reaches the surface, causes it to burst into flame.

“This little experiment can carried on any place for some distance down the creek, which finally runs into Lake Ontario.”¹

The reporter completed his investigation of the natural gas deposits in the area by surmounting the escarpment and then heading south into the countryside:

“A couple of miles from Albion Mills, and about the same distance from the city, a rusted iron pipe rises from an old well in the center of a field by the roadside in the 7^th concession of Barton Township. Usually this pipe is plugged up by a piece of wood.

“When the Globe representative visited the place, the owner of the farm, Mr. John Fenton, exhibited the powers of his flaming fountain. Mr. Fenton took out the plug and held a blazing newspaper over the pipe. A column of fire and water spouted from the pipe and shot several feet in the air. The flames played all around the foaming water, and made a spectacle which was beautiful by day, and must be astonishing at night.”¹

Such were the descriptions left by a Toronto Globe reporter who found some beauty in the south and east of 1884 Hamilton as he investigated the rumours that there was enough natural gas in the vicinity, enough natural gas to warrant commercial drilling. .