Francis Smith, Oil Finder, is a novel situated in the petroleum industry in New Orleans in the early 1960's. Francis returns to New Orleans from a period of duty as a geologist in Libya with the intentions of finding a wife. He quickly meets a student at Tulane University and a romance begins. He reports for his new assignment with Stumble Oil Company and is handed the task of evaluating a new lease that covers a half million acres of south Louisiana marshland. The program to explore this acreage results in a wildcat well that is drilled into a deep, dangerous, abnormal pressure section in...

This is a personal account of rural life on a ranch in central Texas from 1926 to 1944. Voy Ernst Althaus, a fourth generation rancher, describes early ranching in Texas, including controlling factors and limitations. The Great Depression and the advent of technology impacted aspects of daily family life from food, hygiene and recreations to the schools they attended. Enjoy this glimpse into the past from the family photo album and Voy's perspective.

A Story of the Loyal Germans of the Texas Hill Country During the Civil War The town of Fredericksburg, located in the Texas Hill Country near the center of the State, was settled by the German Immigration Society in 1846. The town was a hundred miles past the frontier so the Germans made their own peace treaty with the Camanche Indians who were at war with the Texas at that time. During the next fifteen years German settlers continued to arrive, spreading out to cover a large part of the surrounding country. They learned to farm local crops that suited the local soil and learned to be...