King of the Wildcatters

King of the Wildcatters PDF Author: Ray Miles
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
A legend among oilmen, Tom Slick was an independent operator in the truest sense. His office was his buggy during his early days of wildcatting the Mid-Continent oil field around 1910. And even after great success brought him to posher surroundings in an Oklahoma City office suite, his style remained hands-on. His impromptu deals were often brokered on street corners and over the telephone in his typical laconic style. Well into the 1920s he was the last of a breed who had no stock holders or board members to answer to, and instead "worked out of his hip pocket." Slick's extraordinary rise paralleled that of the modern petroleum industry. He began his career in the oil fields of western Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the American oil business. Before 1910, he headed west, traveling with his father and brother to the fields of Kansas to work as contract drillers. Slick met with failure in these early years, as he moved on to Oklahoma in an attempt to locate oil. In 1912 he received the financial backing to drill one more well, which turned out to be the discovery well for the vast Cushing Field. This amazing success was followed by more discoveries of fields - a frenzy of acquiring, drilling, then selling that in 1929 culminated with Slick's sale of his Oklahoma holdings in the Prairie Oil and Gas Company - up until that time, the largest sale of oil properties by an individual. In this first biography of Tom Slick, Ray Miles fleshes out the man who, despite his legendary drive - and the high-profile nature of the oil business - was exceedingly private and withdrawn. Miles relies on newspaper accounts, court and business records, correspondence, and personal interviews with family, friends, and associates to render a portrait of one of the most successful and colorful, yet elusive, businessmen of his day.

King of the Wildcatters

King of the Wildcatters PDF Author: Ray Miles
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book Here

Book Description
A legend among oilmen, Tom Slick was an independent operator in the truest sense. His office was his buggy during his early days of wildcatting the Mid-Continent oil field around 1910. And even after great success brought him to posher surroundings in an Oklahoma City office suite, his style remained hands-on. His impromptu deals were often brokered on street corners and over the telephone in his typical laconic style. Well into the 1920s he was the last of a breed who had no stock holders or board members to answer to, and instead "worked out of his hip pocket." Slick's extraordinary rise paralleled that of the modern petroleum industry. He began his career in the oil fields of western Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the American oil business. Before 1910, he headed west, traveling with his father and brother to the fields of Kansas to work as contract drillers. Slick met with failure in these early years, as he moved on to Oklahoma in an attempt to locate oil. In 1912 he received the financial backing to drill one more well, which turned out to be the discovery well for the vast Cushing Field. This amazing success was followed by more discoveries of fields - a frenzy of acquiring, drilling, then selling that in 1929 culminated with Slick's sale of his Oklahoma holdings in the Prairie Oil and Gas Company - up until that time, the largest sale of oil properties by an individual. In this first biography of Tom Slick, Ray Miles fleshes out the man who, despite his legendary drive - and the high-profile nature of the oil business - was exceedingly private and withdrawn. Miles relies on newspaper accounts, court and business records, correspondence, and personal interviews with family, friends, and associates to render a portrait of one of the most successful and colorful, yet elusive, businessmen of his day.

Wildcatters

Wildcatters PDF Author: Roger M. Olien
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585446063
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
In the 1970s and 1980s the Texas wildcatter was a recognizable figure in popular culture. Since then, the wildcatter's role is less celebrated but still important, as shown in the new introduction to this edition of a book originally published in 1984 by Texas Monthly Press. Drawing heavily on oral histories, this book tells the story of the West Texas independents as a group, looking at their business strategies in the context of their national, regional, and local conditions. The focus is on the Permian Basin and southeastern New Mexico over the sixty-year period in which the region rose to prominence on the American oil scene, producing about one-fifth of the nation's output. It is a story that covers vast technological change, governmental regulation, and economic fluctuation with profound implications for the oil and gas community. The new introduction brings the story up-to-date by addressing not only the subsequent careers of the wildcatters described in the book but also the role of independents in the current economy. ROGER M. OLIEN, who holds a Ph.D. from Brown University, lives in Austin and is a member of the TSHA Speakers Bureau.DIANA DAVIDS HINTON holds the J. Conrad Dunagan Chair in regional and business history at the University of Texas-Permian Basin. Her Ph.D. is from Yale University.

Finding Oil

Finding Oil PDF Author: Brian Frehner
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803234864
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Oil has made fortunes, caused wars, and shaped nations. Accordingly, no one questions the idea that the quest for oil is a quest for power. The question we should ask, Finding Oil suggests, is what kind of power prospectors have wanted. This book revises oil?s early history by exploring the incredibly varied stories of the men who pitted themselves against nature to unleash the power of oil. Brian Frehner shows how, despite the towering presence of a figure like John D. Rockefeller as a quintessential ?oil man,? prospectors were a diverse lot who saw themselves, their interests, and their relationships with nature in profoundly different ways. He traces their various pursuits of power from 1859 to 1920 as a struggle for cultural, intellectual, and professional authority, over both nature and their peers. Here we see how some saw power as the work they did exploring and drilling into landscapes, while others saw it in the intellectual work of explaining how and where oil accumulated. Charting the intersection of human and natural history, their story traces the ever-evolving relationship between science and industry and reveals the unsuspected role geology played in shaping our understanding of the history of oil.

The Big Rich

The Big Rich PDF Author: Bryan Burrough
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143116827
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
“Full of schadenfreude and speculation—and solid, timely history too.” —Kirkus Reviews “This is a portrait of capitalism as white-knuckle risk taking, yielding fruitful discoveries for the fathers, but only sterile speculation for the sons—a story that resonates with today's economic upheaval.” —Publishers Weekly “What's not to enjoy about a book full of monstrous egos, unimaginable sums of money, and the punishment of greed and shortsightedness?” —The Economist Phenomenal reviews and sales greeted the hardcover publication of The Big Rich, New York Times bestselling author Bryan Burrough's spellbinding chronicle of Texas oil. Weaving together the multigenerational sagas of the industry's four wealthiest families, Burrough brings to life the men known in their day as the Big Four: Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson, all swaggering Texas oil tycoons who owned sprawling ranches and mingled with presidents and Hollywood stars. Seamlessly charting their collective rise and fall, The Big Rich is a hugely entertaining account that only a writer with Burrough's abilities-and Texas upbringing-could have written.

Wildcatter

Wildcatter PDF Author: Dave Duncan
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1473206545
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
As long as there is money to be made, there will be Wildcatters. Throughout human history wildcatters, the first great explorers and prospectors to lay claim to newly discovered lands, have marched to the beat of a different drummer-motivated by a deep yearning to be the first to walk on uncharted land and benefit from treasures yet to be discovered. In the future, wildcatters in space will travel to exoplanets, located in The Big Nothing, to search for new chemicals which, when transformed into pharmaceuticals, will bring untold wealth and fame to the individuals and corporations that stake their claim for exclusive exploitation rights. Such is the quest of the crew of the independent starship Golden Hind, whose mission is to travel a year and a half to "Cacafuego", beat the larger corporations to the exoplanet's resources, and strike it rich for themselves. But will a yellow warning flag, planted above the planet, stop them? Or will the Golden Hind's prospector foray to the planet's surface, possibly to never return alive?

Outrageous Texans

Outrageous Texans PDF Author: Mona D. Sizer
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publications
ISBN: 1589794028
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Outrageous Texans profiles ten larger-than-life, eccentric, extravagant, and interesting personalities to ever come out of the Lone Star State. Mona Sizer, who is the queen of quirky Texas historical writing, details the remarkable lives of notable figures such as Janis Joplin, Miss Texas Guinan's burlesque show that was too hot for Paris, Kinky Friedman, Racehorse Haynes, Stanley Marsh 3's Cadillac Ranch, and more.

Wildcatters

Wildcatters PDF Author: Charles Moncrief
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621570959
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This true story of greed, corruption, and scandal follows one of the most famous oil families in Texas. Moncrief reveals how petty office politics in his family's business led to a frame-up, explores the effects from the subsequent IRS raid, and details the years-long trial that ended with the Moncrief family absolved of all charges.

Oil in Texas

Oil in Texas PDF Author: Diana Davids Hinton
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292778864
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
The dramatic story of the oil boom that transformed the history of a state, drawn from archives and first-person accounts. As the twentieth century began, oil in Texas was easy to find, but the quantities were too small to attract industrial capital and production. Then, on January 10, 1901, the Spindletop gusher blew in. Over the next fifty years, oil transformed Texas, creating a booming economy that built cities, attracted out-of-state workers and companies, funded schools and universities, and generated wealth that raised the overall standard of living, even for blue-collar workers. No other twentieth-century development had a more profound effect upon the state. This book chronicles the explosive growth of the Texas oil industry from the first commercial production at Corsicana in the 1890s through the vital role of Texas oil in World War II. Using both archival records and oral histories, they follow the wildcatters and the gushers as the oil industry spread into almost every region of the state. The authors trace the development of many branches of the petroleum industry: pipelines, refining, petrochemicals, and natural gas. They also explore how overproduction and volatile prices led to increasing regulation and gave broad regulatory powers to the Texas Railroad Commission.

King Energy

King Energy PDF Author: Bruce Raphael
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 059500427X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 730

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Book Description
The modern energy industry grew out of the rubble of the Middle Ages and the American Civil War. It quickly grew into a bewildering assemblage not only of mines, fields, pipelines, utilities and their overlapping directorates but of public and private policies and intrigues throughout the world, one broad enough in scale to rival the most powerful democracies in determining the ultimate fates of nations. Its priorities set the stage for the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. If the industrys rise to power was unexpected by the traditional establishments of nation and state, its crash was equally breathtaking, involving actors and players in unexpected locales and venues, from backyard inventors to the concrete canyons of Wall Street. King Energy is the story of the companies and personalities that defined the 20th Century and set the stage for the economic, political and social agendas leading up to the new millennium.

Press Releases

Press Releases PDF Author: Ted Roggen
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595203590
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
Press Releases is an insightful glance into the life of one of Houston's most successful advertising and public relations men. A veteran of fifty years in the business, entrepreneur Ted Roggen paints a colorful picture of five decades in the advertising and public relations arena. In a series of graceful vignettes about the many prominent clients he has represented over the years, Press Releases is less an autobiography than a loosely woven history of memory as it has wound intself around the partiuclarity of places and times that will not come again. With humor and grace, Mr. Roggen not only gives the reader an unforgettable glance into his own life, but also a glimpse into the lives of some prominent figures who helped to shape the style and glamour of an era.