El Dorado : legacy of an oil boom
Price, Jay M., 1969-
Price, Jay M., 1969-
Authors
Other Names
Location
Time Period
Advisors
Original Date
Digitization Date
Issue Date
2005
Type
Genre
Keywords
Petroleum industry and trade History Pictorial works,Oil fields History Pictorial works
Subjects (LCSH)
Citation
Price, Jay M. El Dorado: Legacy of an Oil Boom. Arcadia, 2005.
Abstract
Table of Contents
In 1915, workers struck oil at a well in Butler County, Kansas, called Stapleton #1. Over the next several years, civilian and military demand for oil transformed what had once been the farm towns of Augusta, Towanda, and El Dorado into petroleum communities. Risk-taking entrepreneurs supported drilling and exploration that brought wealth to some and loss to others. Teams of geologists, using what were still novel and experimental techniques, fanned out across the prairie to find the right places to drill. Workers found employment that was hard and dangerous but offered excitement and opportunity. Families of those workers set up new lives in company towns such as Oil Hill and Midian. Drilling, refining, and related industries supported a wide range of activities. Oil money financed the budding aviation industry in neighboring Wichita, which literally launched the resources from under the ground into the sky. While the petroleum industry changed in the years that followed, the Butler County oil boom has lived on in the companies, the people, and the very landscape of the region.
Description
Publisher
Arcadia
Journal
Book Title
Series
Images of America.