Athabasca Oil Sands from Laboratory to Production: The Letters of Karl A Clark, 1950–66

Barb Bloemhof is an assistant professor in the Department of Sport
Management at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Mary Clark Sheppard’s follow-up to her earlier work, Oil Sands
Scientist: The Letters of Karl A. Clark, 1920–1949, is a thorough and
accessible introduction to bituminous sand resource development.

Written with self-effacing candour, the letters of Karl A. Clark (which
occupy the main part of the book) take the reader on a journey along the
path of innovation—a path that was occasionally interrupted by supply
management roadblocks and competitors’ detours. Dr. Clark was a
pioneer who brought geologists, chemists, and engineers together and
contributed multidisciplinary research that made Canada a world leader
in petroleum-sector geophysical engineering.

Athabasca Oil Sands from Laboratory to Production is liberally
sprinkled with archival photographs and scientific sketches. An appendix
identifies the key historical milestones in oil sands development. In
addition to an index, the book includes a glossary of technical terms
and a concise list of useful supplementary reading.

Notwithstanding the environmental questions that surround the oil sands
project, these ably contextualized letters preserve the history of a
remarkable period for Alberta and Canada.