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Sketchbook I and II commemorated the 200 th anniversary of the travels of Peter Fidler into southern Alberta, Canada. His journal provides the first reference to cactus, coal and oil deposits in Alberta. He was the first to record the existence of Chinook winds and the only person to leave an eyewitness account of a working buffalo jump.
Trained as a surveyor by the Hudson's Bay Company, he charted the rivers, lakes and mountains and sent the information to the great mapmakers of Europe where it was used in atlases around the world.
Fidler married a Native woman and they had 14 children. Other than returning on leave to his birthplace, Bolsover, England in 1812 to build a home for his mother, the rest of his life was spent in western Canada. His last job as surveyor was to lay out river lots for the Red River Colony (Winnipeg). Born in 1769, he died in 1822.