Note: The Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show in Weyburn recognizes Southeast Saskatchewan Legends at every edition of the biennial event. Six long-time employees of the southeast oil patch will be recognized at this year's gathering June 3 and 4.
WEYBURN — Don Spearing was literally born into the oilfield.
His father Ken started hauling fluids from some of the first wells drilled in Saskatchewan, near Frobisher, in 1956. That company was Bowman and Spearing Service Ltd, operating out of Frobisher.
Don Spearing was born in 1961 in Oxbow, the second of four children. He and his brother Trevor started working for their father’s company at a young age, sweeping floors and fixing tires. After graduation in 1978, he worked in the shop full-time.
It was a very slow time in the oilpatch due to the NDP’s Bill 42 – the Oil and Gas Conservation, Stabilization and Development Act – so he got a job on a service rig. That didn’t last long, and he ended up spending a winter hitch on a service rig at Fort St. John, B.C., before returning to Oxbow.
By the early ’80s, the company, now Spearing Service after Bowman was bought out in 1978, was running 10 full-time trucks and was operating from Oxbow. Spearing obtained his 1A licence and drove for the family business until 1987, when he moved into the office and started to do dispatch and management, working alongside his brother.
At that point, Spearing’s father decided to start spending ever-longer winters down south, leaving the company to his sons to operate. In 1989, the elder Spearing sold the majority of the company to his two sons, and reverted to a minority position.
Spearing recalls his father saying, “Okay smartasses – you’ve been telling me how to run the company for the last 10 years. I’m going south. You guys run it.”
At this point, they were running around 15-18 trucks, specializing in hauling fluid in the oilfield. This grew to include vac trucks, frac heaters, hot oilers, steamers and more.
It was during this time period Spearing met and married Charlene Allen of Sturgis, an emergency medical technician and later a nurse. They married in 1992 and had four children – Brianna, Jasmin, Courtney and Ryley, all of whom worked in the company at one time or another. Charlene Spearing left nursing to raise the children.
Spearing Service bought out Koch Trucking in 1996 with about a dozen trucks, and Trans-X’s oilfield division in 2003, adding another 10 trucks.
In 1999, Spearing started another trucking company, Great Northern Trucking USA, in North Dakota.
The 2000s proved fruitful for Spearing Service, growing to over 60 trucks and bases in Oxbow, Carlyle, Pipestone and Waskada.
In 2005, Spearing talked to Murray Mullen about selling the company to Mullen Group. Spearing needed a break, and Mullen said, “Why don’t I own the equipment and you run it? That deal was sealed in 2006, and took away a lot of the financial stress for Spearing.
While Trevor soon left to start his own hydrovac company, Extreme Hydrovac, Don Spearing stayed on for close to eight years, long past his contracted date. As the Bakken boom took hold, the company grew quite a bit while Spearing was still onboard. Soon they had over 60 trucks, 100 crude oil trailers and 150 frac tanks, just as fracking was taking off. Don left in 2014, just before things went sour in the oilpatch, he explained.
When his non-compete expired, Spearing added a new company, Great Northern Trucking Canada.
The two Great Northern Trucking companies specialized in hauling oil for delivery across the border. Ironically, the U.S. version hauled oil to Canada for delivery, and the Canadian version delivered oil to the U.S. Daughter Brianna and her husband Joey were heavily involved in their operations until 2022. Then Courtney took over until the U.S. version was sold in 2024, and the Canadian version has been wound down in recent years.
His brother and long-time business partner Trevor died in 2023.
These days Don and Charlene Spearing live in Lakeside, Montana, moving there before Yellowstone made it cool.
