Charles Stalnaker's Nitroglycerine Car, Red Coulee, Alberta, October 1930.
Before the development of such stimulative techniques as water flooding, steam-fracturing and acidizing wells to induce production from stubborn geological formations, explosives were the most commonly used catalysts (see Canada's Visual History, volume 56, illustrations 12 and 13). Charles B. Stalnaker of Montana was the premier well-shooter in the Turner Valley field and southern Alberta. He was variously incorporated under the names: Northwestern Torpedo Company of Shelby, Montana, and Turner Valley; the International Torpedo and Supply Company; and the Independent Eastern Torpedo Company (an Ohio firm with whom he did business). Some of his early trucks were simply padded with rubber to cushion his lethal loads of nitro and gelignite, but the car pictured here was fitted with a special shock-absorbing device installed by an Ohio steel company. The car doors bore the company name, the rear side panels "NITRO GLYCERINE" and the back panel "DANGEROUS." En route to the fields, the front and rear fenders carried red warning flags. In the words of one Turner Valley pioneer, "He was the glamour figure of the oil field. No one would insure him as he could only make one mistake. He had a police escort through towns and cities, and wherever possible roads were cleared for him. We looked on him in awe, thankful that it was not our man."
Stalnaker's import permits revealed the dangerous cargo that was his constant companion: "Three hundred quarts of nitro... twenty quarts of solid nitro... 6 Bolshevik baby Twin Time bombs... 45 cases (2300 lbs) of solidified nitroglycerine at $0.35 per lb. ... 50 lbs dynamite. 10 qt nitro. 2 time bomb clocks. Eight line squibs. 2 torpedo shells ... Anchor." (Jack Peach, "One Man Explosives Firm Left Indelible Mark on Oil Industry." Calgary Herald, 20 September 1980.)
A year before the photograph was taken, Stalnaker had already made a first in aviation history when he accompanied World War I air ace Fred McCall and 114 litres of nitroglycerine from Shelby, Montana, to Calgary. Flying a Stinson "Detroiter" they carried the nitro to promote production in Calmont Oil's stubborn well, but ran out of gas just as they landed at a primitive airstrip west of Calgary. With an expectant movie crew recording a potentially spectacular explosion. the aircraft lurched and bumped to a relatively uneventful stop, and Stalnaker lived to practice his Mephistophelian craft for another decade.
Courtesy: Glenbow-Alberta Institute, Major C.J. Stewart (NA 711-171)
