By the time young Joseph Burr Tyrrell was sent to survey the Alberta badlands, he had already proven himself to the scientist-explorers of the Canadian Geological Survey, those unheralded heroes who mapped the vast territories of Canada in the last century.
In June 1884, 24-year-old Tyrrell and his assistant were paddling their canoe between the steep banks of the Red Deer River. In the layers of ancient rock, the geologist found seams of coal, outcroppings of one of the largest coal deposits in North America. He also discovered something even more amazing.
