  The field of experimental particle physics has become more sophisticated over
time, as fewer, larger experimental collaborations search for small signals in
samples with large components of background. The search for and the observation
of electroweak single top quark production by the CDF and DZero collaborations
at Fermilab's Tevatron collider are an example of an elaborate effort to
measure the rate of a very rare process in the presence of large backgrounds
and to learn about the properties of the top quark's weak interaction. We
present here the techniques used to make this groundbreaking measurement and
the interpretation of the results in the context of the Standard Model.
