Boomtown Blues: Colorado Oil Shale, Revised Edition

by Andrew Gulliford

First published in 1989, Boomtown Blues examines the remarkable 100-year history of oil shale development and chronicles the social, environmental, and financial havoc created by the industry's continual cycles of boom and bust.

In 1980, Exxon U.S.A., the world's largest corporation, began development of a five-billion-dollar oil shale industry in the pristine Colorado River Valley. Within eighteen months, Exxon had canceled its elaborate Colony project and 2,100 workers were immediately laid off. Boomtown Blues chronicles the social, environmental, and economic havoc created by one of the most expensive boom and bust cycles in the history of the American West. This 100-year historical account of the turbulent oil shale industry describes exploration and settlement in the Colorado River Valley as well as land ownership changes brought about since the first boom of 1915-1925.

Included are poignant personal interviews, a comprehensive bibliography, and a critical review of Exxon's infamous "white paper" on the future of synthetic fuels in the United States. This edition also includes a new afterword by the author.

Boomtown Blues is an important reference for historians, social scientists, environmentalists, policymakers, city planners, and all those who care about the fate of the American West.

316 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1989

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just re-read this. It is interesting and relevant now in light of the oil/gas industry in Garco. I emailed Andrew Guilliford the author, and he is going to be revisiting this story AND is updating his history of Garfield County.

[Bob Fitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first job out of koledge was in an underground oil shale mine in Rifle Colorado the heart of this book - biggest diameter shafts in North America. I had never been far from home in midwest or planet surface or heavy civil construction before. This turned out to be one of the top 3 most profound personal and career experiences in my life. That's my first connection to this book.

2ndly it is how fascinating the minerals and mining world is. That these 'boom towns' all over the world literally and metaphorically have occurred since the beginning of man and will continue into eternity. Kind of like war. The people, machinery, materials, means & methods constantly evolving...

[Onni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good social impact study on the effects of the oil shale boom in Colorado. My family arrived in Grand Valley (now Parachute), Colorado in the early 1960s during the early phases of oil company renewed interest in the region. The author chose to skip over this period entirely, but gave a good account from the 1970s onward. But it was still a good read with an important conclusion about corporate responsibility and local government control.