In light of the importance of oil and gas in California, perhaps the discovery of gold there should be viewed as just a flash in the pan. By 1938, the cumulative value of all the gold found in the state stood at something more than two billion dollars, while the cumulative value of the oil and gas produced was more than double that sum--well over five billion dollars. The story of California oil deserves to be told, and pictures tell it best.
The more than three hundred photographs in this book vividly portray the development of California's rich and colorful petroleum industry from the...

The oil and gas industry in Louisiana and Arkansas has played as great a role in the shaping of the destinies of those two states as any other factor. Here, in 325 contemporary photographs, many of them never before published, is an eyewitness record of the early years of that industry.
The rich oil legacy of the region had been noticed centuries ago when the area's Indians used natural oil seeps as sources of medicinal oil for themselves and their animals. Non-Indians became aware of the presence of crude in the early 1800's, and by 1860 several petroleum-rich sites had been located in...