Vern "the dry-hole" Hunter
The man chosen to supervise the drilling of the Leduc well - the “tool push” in oil industry parlance - was Vern Hunter, the son of a Baptist minister from Nanton, Alberta, who had overseen the drilling of many of Imperial’s unsuccessful wells- so many, in fact, that he had acquired the affectionate nickname of “Dry Hole” Hunter.
When the well was spudded-in on that chilly November day, Vern Hunter commented wryly, “They’ll never find oil here- it’s too close to the city.” In the opinion of Doug Layer, a geologist who was to play a significant role in the discovery, most Imperial managers shared Hunter’s initial pessimism: “They didn’t think that Leduc could be any different (from the previous 133 wells).”
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