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SATURDAY, JANUARY - BY GEOFFREY LANE I the beginning there was the oil Then came the men, later still the know-how and the machines. That is how Sarnia ' became the centre of Canada's chemical industry, a vast maze of 20th century technical in- stallations operated by some of the nation's most skilled men. Today Chemical Valley follows the St. Clair River south from the heart of Sarnia, a city of 48,000, for almost 10 miles. Viewed either from the road (Highway 40) or from the air, the area resembles on a smaller scale West Germany's Ruhr or England's Man- "chester region. Growth of Chemical Valley can be traced back to the first oil well on the North American continent, dis- covered in 1858 at Oil Springs, about 25 miles south east of Sarnia. En- gineers, prospectors and fortune seek- ers from all over the world were attracted to the area and before long Imperial Oil Ltd. opened its first oil refinery at nearby Petrolia. A decade or so later, oil officials found it expedient to move the re- finery to Sarnia, on the banks of the St. Clair River. The supply at Oil Springs gradually dwindled and crude oil was shipped in from the U.S. and the Lakehead. | ; With the outbreak of the Second ONTARIO TODAY Ships from all World War, Sarnia became a key production centre. Sources of natural rubber in the Far East were first in jeopardy and then lost, and. Ottawa focussed attention on the need for synthetic rubber, which is manufac- tured in part from the byproducts of oil refineries. The government invested $60 mil- lion to build Polymer Corporation adjacent to Imperial Oil. It was a mammoth task but the plant that now employs more than 2,000 persons was built in less than two years. Today Polymer is the largest syn- thetic rubber plant in' Canada and . one of the largest in the free world, exporting to countries around the - globe. With Polymer came Dow Chemical Company of Canada Ltd. manufac- turers of plastics; Fiberglas (Canada) Ltd.; Cabot Carbon Co. Ltd.; Sun Oil refinery; Canadian Oil Companies Ltd. Within the next year DuPont of Can- ada will open a multi-million dollar plant to make polyethylene, another form of plastic for industrial use. Although Chemical Valley repre- sents a total investment of something like $1 billion with its network of rail- roads, docking facilities and highways over the world carry Valley products. there are still certain sections that re- main almost untouched. One of these is the Sarnia Indian Reserve, which until March, 1959, spread across 3,000 acres and abutted the sprawling in- dustrial plants. Now the Reserve and its 500 residents have been squeezed into a mere 450 acres, the remainder having been sold for more than $6 million for industrial purposes. The Indians have read the writing on the wall and have resigned them- selves to integrating with the com- mercial growth. Most are employed locally with the companies that have erased what was at one time their birthright. Meanwhile Sarnia is having its share of woes that go hand in hand with prosperity. A decade ago the popula- tion was only 25,000. Today it nudges the 50,000 mark and new homes are being built at the rate of one or more. a day. The city is growing so fast it is literally bursting at the - seams. But few Sarnians complain. They re- alize they probably would not be so well off today if it were not for Che- mical Valley. They also take a spe- cial pride in the advertised fact that Sarnia is Canada's fasting growing city--thanks to that oil of 100 years. ago. PAGE THIRTEEN WOMEN THE DENTAL PROFESSION NEEDS YOU! Today, more than ever before, dentists rely on their nurses to perform specialized duties. Dental Nurses must be prepared to act as x-ray and lab helper, chairside assistant and office manager, as well as receptionist. 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