Boomtown Blues

Mining the American West Series

"Gulliford's scalpel exposes the myths and miscalculations that caused the leaders of this country to launch a synfuels fiasco a decade ago."
-Stewart Udall, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior

"An important contribution to the New Western History, Gulliford's full and compassionate portrait of the social consequences of corporate irresponsibility provides Westerners with a prime opportunity to wrestle with the lessons of history."
-Patricia Nelson Limerick, University of Colorado at Boulder

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.

Andrew Gulliford is Director of the Center for Southwest Studies and professor of Southwest Studies and history at Fort Lewis College. He is the author of Sacred Objects and Sacred Places: Preserving Tribal Traditions (UPC).