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From the archives

Football Fables

The beautiful game bestrides the world like a colossus

But Blind They Were

The fallacy of an empty continent

Alberta and Me

From a land of oil, true enough

Richard Giles

Richard Giles is finishing his doctorate at the University of Waterloo’s School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability.

Articles by
Richard Giles

The Well from Hell

It was a disaster May 2022
As the events of the First World War played out in Europe, prospectors were attempting to strike it rich in Alberta. Although the province would eventually become an oil powerhouse, early development efforts were not always successful. In 1916, for example, Peace River Oils drilled a well that became known as Old Salty, because instead of finding…