Alaska history in the making

The oil riches of Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay were very nearly never discovered at all, writes Kathrine Schmidt.

After a string of expensive and disappointing dry holes on what is now known as the North Slope, geologists in 1968 with Atlantic Richfield Company, later acquired by BP, and Humble Oil, which became part of ExxonMobil, made one last-ditch effort. The result was a find for the ages.