What they saw were five buildings and masses of complex steel structures, comprising cooling towers, pipes, turbines, elbows, valves and meters.

The station, which employs only five people, sits unobtrusively and solitarily on a secluded 70-acre site, surrounded by a chain link fence at the end of a rural road.

There, natural gas channeled from various locations in the U.S. and Canada is compressed and cooled by fans to safe levels, before being released to destinations where it is needed.

Completed in November, 2008, the $28-$30 million project is part of a three-state capacity improvement project that aimed to increase natural gas supplies in New England and New York.

Visitors to the facility first were treated to a hot dog and hamburger barbecue served by caterers under a tent.

Then, donning hard hats and protective glasses, groups of about a dozen visitors at a time received tours of the control/auxiliary building which contains air compressors, a generator, computers and a security system, and the compressor building where the gas is actually compressed and cooled.

The complex also includes a garage/maintenance building, a waste building and a fuel gas building.

Spectra Energy originally sought to build the facility on Airport Access Road on property belonging to Omega Engineering, Inc., of Stamford. The parcel is in the town's corporate zone.

Working with the town, however, it agreed to settle in the Woodruff Hill Industrial Park, which was viewed by the town as a more appropriate setting.

Residents voted in 2006 to give Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC, of which Spectra is a subsidiary, the 70-acre Woodruff Hill Road parcel in return for constructing a road to the site.

The road and all utilities, valued at more than $2 million, provides access to other town-owned lots in the subdivision.

"To me this is a much better location," said Bill Lund, chairman of the Oxford Economic Development Commission, after completing the tour. "This site is better suited for this kind of industry," he said.

Economic Development Coordinator Herman Schuler, who helped put the deal together, said it was a win-win situation for both the town and for Spectra.

The company generates about $500,000 a year in real and personal property taxes, he noted.

Ed Harney, manager of rights of way and land, said, as he handed out souvenir mugs to departing guests, that the open house was organized to give town officials and neighbors a chance to see the facility, which normally is inaccessible to the public.