To view a larger version of an image, simply click on the picture. To return, close the new window.
After drilling a 640 foot Exploratory well, this American Cable Tool Rig built in Erie, Pennsylvania, was abandoned in 1919 on a drilling site at the junction of the House and Athabasca rivers when an early Edmonton-based oil company went bankrupt. A copy of the first annual report of the Northern Production Co. Ltd., founded by A.F.A. Coyne, contained not only a picture of the rig, but a photo of the view to the south taken from atop the rig. After studying the photo in 1979, Stan Kondratiuk arranged for a helicopter to be manoeuvered until the view matched that in the photo and then landed in the nearest open area. The rig was less than two hundred feet away! The current owner of the land agreed to donate the rig to the museum.
Because the rig had collapsed, the metal parts were covered with rotten wood and overgrown with vegetation, so a metal detector was used to find many of these metal parts. Finally the pieces, moved to Edmonton by helicopter and truck, were put together under the supervision of Fin Lineham who had, as a young man, helped to build cable tool rigs.
Many companies in the petroleum industry donated funds and services to help reconstruct the rig.