LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS - Tucked behind the Northwright Air Hangar in Norman Wells, a little bit of the town's exploration history sits dismantled, a mix of aged timber, gnarled iron and a rusted Band wheel - the building blocks of what was once a pulsing oil rig.

Warren Wright stands next to the remains of an old oil cable rig at the Northwright hangar in Norman Wells. - Elizabeth McMillan/NNSL photo

It's an historical puzzle - one that residents hope to put together in recognition of the influence drilling has had on the development of the town.

"Fort Norman care of the Hudson Bay Company" remains painted on some of the aged wood, which for years lay discarded on the riverbank, entrapped by brush, doomed to sink into the current as erosion nagged at the banks each spring and fall.

Working in mid-April, not long before break-up, Warren Wright and a crew from Esso and Hogson Contracting pulled the old machinery across the Mackenzie River. Had it been any later in the year, the heavy iron would have sunk as the ice melted and would have been forgotten.

With the help of some new lumber, the material is quite salvageable, says Wright, one of the people behind the planned restoration.

He said originally it would have been a typical cable oil rig, powered by a steam engine, with a local motor providing the energy to pound a hole in the ground. Through a slow process of clearing out the hole and starting again, they drilled a crevice - 3,057 feet deep.

"You wonder how they did it?" Wright said, explaining how each remaining piece fit into the design.

Many of the parts remain intact, but some of the wood needs to be replaced and it needs a broiler. To complete the design it shouldn't be hard to find a stationary one, the broiler that's on display now outside the Norman Wells museum is believed to be the original, Wright said.

Peggy Pouw, of the Norman Wells Historical Society, said the project has been in the works for six years, and involved a process of clearing the bush, salvaging pieces and ploughing an ice road to move the heavy parts this spring. She said parts of the drilling rig date back to 1911, making it as old as the town itself.

"It's our heritage. Norman Wells basically revolves around oil," she said.

Pouw said though many local people know about the oil history as their families have been a part of it, not all residents are as familiar.

"People come and go. It's a transient town. Esso people last three to five years. As for the new people, I don't think they know a lot about our history unless they come into the museum," she said, adding its been exciting seeing the project progress.

"It's a lot of hard labour. It was a lot of labour getting it here, and now it'll be the cost to restore it."

Pouw said they'll be looking into grants and taking cues from a similar rig restoration in Drayton Valley, Alta.

Though the rebuilding hasn't started yet, Wright anticipates work to resume on the rig this fall, as they explore how best to re-create its former structure. He hopes the rig can be reconstructed to stand outside the airport. The only problem may be height - at 25m tall, the rig may infringe on air space.

The Cable Rig committee is aiming to have it re-built by the town's centennial, in 2019-2020.

The original rig stood on the southwest side of the Mackenzie River, opposite the upper end of Bear Island. Known as the "C" location well, the Northwest Company began drilling with the rig in 1921, according to a Geological Survey of Canada memoir from 1954. It didn't yield much oil and was abandoned. It was one of 21 unsuccessful locations drilled around the Mackenzie River between 1921 and 1946.

"It had a taste of oil, but it showed it was at the outer limits of the field," Wright explained.

Drilling in Norman Wells started in 1920, after a geologist for the Northwest Company discovered oil. The parent company, Imperial Oil, sent Theodore August Link, originally from Indiana, to survey the Mackenzie River. Upon discoveries of commercial amounts less than 300 metres from the surface, he claimed the Fort Norman field would eclipse those in Peru and Mexico. The first drills were cable rigs that ran into bedrock at a depth of 20 feet, later meeting fresh water and cutting through sandstone and shale before eventually hitting oil deposits.

Imperial established a small refinery that supplied oil for surrounding communities for half a century,

With the oil fields still producing, it continues to be a central part of the town's industry.

"It wouldn't be the town it is if it wasn't for the oil," said Pouw.

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