First Oil Well in Western Canada

Located in Waterton Lakes National Park is this small monument, a National Historic Site of Canada, marking the very first oil well in Western Canada. It was a brief stop off on my scenic drive out to Cameron Lake, and it's exactly the kind of random roadside attraction that I love to find when I'm road tripping.

Drilling on the site began in 1901, and they struck oil in 1902 at a depth of 311 metres. The well never reached its expected potential of 300 barrels per day, but the brief success did kick of Alberta's speculative oil boom. The rest, as they say, is history.