Growing Up in the Oil Patch chronicles the adventures and achievements of some of the most colourful, ambitious people of their time: statesmen, scoundrels, visionaries and developers. Participants all in the growing oil patch! The author presents a highly readable, informative and entertaining account of the early years in the development of Canada’s gas and oil industry. Based upon five years of research, interviews, and his fortuitous discovery of a rare, historically important scribbler, John Schmidt traces the paths of two enterprising American-born drillers, "Frosty" Martin and "Tiny" Phillips, whose drive and ingenuity were encouraged by British and Canadian promoters and financiers. Their entrepreneurial spirit took them initially to Leamington, Ontario, and ultimately into the heart of the oil patch in Western Canada.

A groundbreaking new history of the United States, showing how Christian faith and the pursuit of petroleum fueled America's rise to global power and shaped today's political clashes Anointed with Oil places religion and oil at the center of American history. As prize-winning historian Darren Dochuk reveals, from the earliest discovery of oil in America during the Civil War, citizens saw oil as the nation's special blessing and its peculiar burden, the source of its prophetic mission in the world. Over the century that followed and down to the present day, the oil industry's leaders and its ordinary workers together fundamentally transformed American religion, business, and politics -- boosting America's ascent as the preeminent global power, giving shape to modern evangelical Christianity, fueling the rise of the Republican Right, and setting the terms for today's political and environmental debates. Ranging from the Civil War to the present, from West Texas to Saudi Arabia to the Alberta Tar Sands, and from oil-patch boomtowns to the White House, this is a sweeping, magisterial book that transforms how we understand our nation's history.

The Bradford Oil Field is the oldest producing oil field in the world, and from it comes the very best grade of crude oil in the world. This book tells of the first discovery of oil in the USA by the Seneca Indians at Cuba, NY in 1627, and of the first drilled oil well at Titusville, PA in 1859. There are photos of old time drilling rigs, power-houses, and pumping jacks, along with descriptions of how they operated. There is a section devoted to the dangers of nitroglycerin used to shoot the wells, and of one man in particular (my father) who survived that dangerous occupation. Several pages are devoted to the things other people remember when they too grew up in the oil patch. The book up-dates us as to current drilling operations in 2008, "There's Still Oil in Them Thar Hills", and ends with the introduction of a brand new way to refine crude oil that will reduce the cost of refining a gallon of gasoline by fifty-percent or more.

Tells of the lives of early-day oil field families in Texas boomtowns.

Here is the story of what life was like for a boy growing up in a small southern town during the years of the Great Depression, then continuing on to service in World War II, getting an education, and building a career. It's no different that what many young men born at this time did. Between the financial struggles of the Depression years culminating with our entry into World War II, this was a difficult time in America's history. There were many hardships, but there was fun too. Along the way are stories about country life, farm chores and colorful local residents and relatives.

Margaret Carlson presents her columns and views on motherhood, feminism, and politics, and includes how she became Time magazine's first woman columnist.

Erickson's articles and essays have been published in Texas Highways, Livestock Weekly, The Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Times Herald, and American Cowboy . This collection is arranged by Place; From Buffalo to Cattle; The Cowboy; Cowboy Tools; Ranch and Rodeo; Animals; and This and That. Many of the pieces are anecdotal, based on Erickson's experiences and observations on ranches. Others required some research and are more historical. Some are essays in which Erickson views contemporary life through the lens of cowboying. But all of them are vintage master storyteller John Erickson, told with humor and thoughtfulness.

Gaylon Finklea Hecker and Marianne Odom began the interviews for this book in 1981 and devoted a professional lifetime to collecting the memories of accomplished Texans to determine what, if anything, about growing up in the Lone Star State prepared them for success. The resulting forty-seven oral history interviews begin with tales from the early 1900s, when Texas was an agrarian state, and continue through the growth of major cities and the country’s race to the moon. Interviewees recalled life in former slave colonies; on gigantic ranches, tiny farms, and sharecropper fields; and in one-horse towns and big-city neighborhoods, with relatable stories as diverse as the state’s geography. The oldest interviewees witnessed women earning the right to vote and weathered the Great Depression. Many remembered two world wars, while others recalled the Texas City explosion of 1947 and the tornado that devastated Waco in 1953. They witnessed the advent of television and the nightly news, which helped many come to terms with the assassination of a president that took place too close to home. Their absorbing reflections are stories of good and bad, hope and despair, poverty and wealth, depression and inspiration, which would have been different if lived anywhere but Texas.

Much has been said about the great gushers, the notorious wildcatters, and the raucous boomtowns of oil field life, but the stories of the people who lived their lives in the shadow of the derrick have mainly gone untold. This book is a fascinating look at the everyday life of oil field workers and their families, told through oral recollections and eighty photographs. The surviving culture of the oil patch has become perhaps more significant than the diminishing reserves remaining under the surface of the ground. It is a culture that reveals itself in the popular phrase: "You can take the Texan out of the oil field, but you can't take the oil field out of the Texan." As Texas changed from a rural to urban/industrial society, no group experienced this passage more vividly than oil field workers and their families. This book is a compelling chronicle of those times. -- from Book Jacket.