dlq04

Here's a couple photos from the area I grew up. This was just 76 years before I was born. I never saw it. It was all cleaned up except for the rainbow color of the rivers and creeks which always had oil seeping into them. Even the fish thought it was normal. But we knew enough to not eat them and to swim at the city pool.




An interesting footnote: There is still an active oil well that has been pumping out oil every day since that period of time. The profit goes to funding the upkeep of historic properties.

boltonblue

Reading about the oil baron wars is rather interesting.
Old Rockefeller squeezed 'em all out by controlling the railroads.
Eventually precipitating in the Sherman antitrust laws.