The first pottery factory in Medicine Hat was founded in 1912 by John McIntyre, representative of the Western Porcelain Manufacturing Company in Spokane, Washington. He saw the successful production of brick and sewer pipe in Medicine Hat, and reasoned that pottery production could benefit from the same advantages enjoyed by these other clay products manufacturers: natural gas would reduce the cost of firing the kilns, and finished products could be shipped to market on the CPR. There was one major difference: the coarse earthenware and stoneware clays used to produce bricks and pipes were available locally, while the finer grades of clay required for producing pottery had to be imported. This posed no great problem for McIntyre, as he could access Western Porcelain’s clay deposits in Washington which he proposed to import at the rate of one carload every second day. Because natural gas allowed him to fire the pottery cheaply. he could afford to transport the raw material to Medicine Hat.

City Council evidently agreed with McIntyre’s assessment, as they granted him concessions in March of 1912 amounting to free land, reduced utilities, and tax exemptions. In return, McIntyre was to erect a plant for not less than $37,000 and offer continuous employment to between 50 and 65 employees. The factory was supposed to open in May of 1912, but McIntyre was held up for months on the delivery of the machinery he ordered from East Liverpool, Ohio. His superintendent, William Clark, kept the staff busy making moulds, so that when the equipment finally arrived in January, 1913 the plant was ready to go into production. By March, 1913 the Medicine Hat Pottery Company was proudly displaying its wares in local store windows and at the Board of Trade.

Unfortunately, not much else is known about the company. New enterprises starting in Medicine Hat were greeted with great fanfare, but those that went under disappeared quietly. The pottery went out of business after little more than one year in operation. Apparently, the cost of bringing in clay from Washington State was prohibitive. Very few of the company’s wares have survived, although the Medicine Hat Manufacturer listed the products of the Medicine Hat Pottery in 1913 as including flower pots, jugs, and demi-johns. The company survives as a footnote in Medicine Hat’s industrial history, and were it not for the fact that Medalta rose from its ashes it might have faded into complete obscurity.