High Heels 'N' Oil Rigs

Michael Payne is head of the research and publications program, Historic
Sites and

Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and co-author of A
Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

Considering the importance of the oil business in Canada, there are
surprisingly few books on the history of oil exploration and production,
and fewer still on oil workers. Perhaps because so much of the
development of this industry has taken place since World War II, it
probably does not seem very historical. As High Heels ’n’ Oil Rigs
points out, however, the industry has changed immeasurably, even in the
last 20 years. The kind of camp life endured during Canada’s oil boom
in the 1970s vanished with the advent of satellite television, improved
roads, and the development of service towns near once remote and
isolated oil fields.

The author, attracted by good wages and the promise of adventure, began
work in 1970 as a camp cook, working on a succession of drilling
projects until 1979. The oil industry delivered, for the most part, on
the first part of the promise, but adventure was less obvious and took
some unexpected forms. The book begins with a bear story, and bears
appear throughout, along with camp hardship (fiascoes with plumbing and
heating) and some tales of drink and high jinks; but the overwhelming
impression of life in camps is one of routine and regimentation—not
adventure. The author ably sets out the camp hierarchy with its nuances
of power and responsibility from rig boss to roughneck, and the place of
cooks and cooks’ assistants, engineers, and geologists in these tiny
temporary communities. She also explains the crucial role played by
coffee, gin rummy, and endless storytelling in filling the long hours
spent off duty.

The title suggests that this is a woman’s perspective on rig life,
but, aside from a few references to rather blatant discrimination
against women, gender plays a surprisingly small role in the
story—almost as small as Beverley Jones’s high heels, which did not
survive the trip into her first camp outside Tuktoyaktuk.