Billy Adair's Grandkid

G. George Ostrom

Latest statistics show, " The one nation representing the United States" biggest source of oil and gas is Canada." A "local boy" had a deep influence creating that current situation.

Erick Fehlberg was reared a san early "North Forker" because his grandfather, Bill Adair, built the Polebridge Mercantile in the wilderness before the Westside road was done.

Erick died late last month at his home in Bakersfield, California, but I feel his heart was still in the mountains of Montana. He was one of my closest friends dating back to high school, and I feel privileged to have shared in his life of great accomplishment.

Thinking back … way back, Erick and I somehow did not think of our job as "rock pickers" to be strenuous or tedious "labor." Maybe it was because we were young, physically fit, out on our own and looking forward to imminent military service. Whatever! Erick and I in the early spring of 1946 started walking north out of Columbia Falls carrying rock forks behind a Forest Service road grader. The fact we were committed to removing thousands of rocks and many boulders all the way to the Canadian Boarder didn't faze us as we worked our way up that long, winding North Fork road.

Erick was a quieter person than his closest pals but somehow was never the aloof intellectual type … even though he had all the credentials. Cruised through high school classes including tough ones like advanced geometry and calculus, but still sought more challenge by finishing two years of college engineering studies on the side. My friend's amazing career was underway.

Erick played first string lineman for the Flathead Braves football team, loved to fly fish, won the heart of one of the prettiest girls in school, still finding time to play cards with his buddies and do a little partying, a well-rounded "good guy."

Regarding this Canadian oil business: After Air Force service, Erick used his G.I. bill to get two college degrees, one in civil engineering and one in geology. Shell Oil grabbed him and an early assignment was the Athabasca Tar-Sands Oil Shale fields in Alberta, Canada, where Shell had, and still has, vast holdings. He, his wife Patty "Buckmaster" Fehlberg, along with their growing family lived several years in Calgary. It was during that time; Erick's ideas for recovering tar-sands oil were new and innovative, on the cutting edge of then known technology. Erick shrugged off an incident wherein a ranking Shell geologist took personal credit for a highly technical research paper Erick had written about his theories.

I urged Erick to appeal and make an issue of it, but he was a calm stoic man. In spite of personal hurt by the incident, he remained a valuable employee, advancing what he considered fascinating and vital research. Said he disliked the distraction caused by playing corporate politics, and preferred concentrating on his work.

Erick was eventually given international recognition and credit for "extracting heavy crude oil by steam injection methods," successfully demonstrated at the Bellridge Field in California, also used in Canada. He rose to Senior Staff Reservoir Engineer before retiring after 33 years with the giant Shell Corporation.

I'll be going up the North Fork road again this summer. Will warmly recall pitching rocks with Erick 62 years ago, and once again feel pride and amazement at how far he went … from Polebridge.