Bitumount is designated a Provincial Historic Resource.

After Bitumount

In his landmark Report on the Alberta Bituminous Sands of 1950, Sidney Blair foresaw a future for the plant at Bitumount:

It is recommended that the Bitumount Plant be maintained as a Field Testing Station. It has been shown that there is a considerable amount of field work to be done and it will all require power, steam, machine shops, housing, etc., such as is available at Bitumount. In addition the present plant will be required for providing stocks of bitumen and for checking possible processing economies arising from work elsewhere.

This, however, was not to be. In 1953, David Pasternack wrote an article entitled, “Alberta Oil Sands: World’s largest oil reserve lies at shallow depth yet large commercial production has not materialized.” He speculated that development might not be too far distant, but in fact it was still a decade before the sod was turned for the first industrial scale separation plant.

The plant at Bitumount was shut down and put up for sale. The government had no appetite for continued expenditures in an area that many felt should be left to industry.