Boom Town Blues

Boomtown Blues: Oil Shale
dollar investment.
Exxon's Exit
and
the 22nd Oil Shale Symposium
the Colorado School of Mines April 20, 1989
a paper presented at
at
Because the 1915-1925
had
boom had failed,
shale
Garfield County
citizens
boom. But then
they became convinced and they invested accord
initially been skeptical of this recent
ingly. The thousands of newcomers, the hundreds of new houses
Andrew Gulliford, Ph.D.
Director of the Museum
Western New Mexico University
Silver City, NM 88061
Copyright 1989
All
streets, the out-of-state license plates
by Andrew Gulliford
This
effects of
the
devastating
the Colorado
Rifle, Silt, Parachute,
Grand Junction. The
and
extensive research and oral
Colorado
and
in Houston
and
is based
failed to
from
Bowling Green,
month
author
public and oral
brings to his work not only the
and was able
from
area residents whom
comes
altered
to
trailers
the Washington D.C.
office of
Additional data
On
former United
closed
to
came unemployed and
Sunday May 2, 1982, that it was
Colony project,
7,500
overnight
support workers
2,100
people
began to worry
Overnight,
number of
their
question
the
size of
off.
as
their inventories
and
the
these
a
boom, but not
epic proportions.
No
a single plan existed
one wanted
general contractors each of whom
to
for
to believe that the
a
an
to
shut
"
oil shale
ner.
workers of
all rental
an estimated
the
exodus
to
Colony
shed a
American
shutdown'
trucks
and
1,000
people
had begun.
receive
their final
"By
Oil Shale Project
few tears,
dream.*
and prepared
Though many
campers, cars, pickups, and trailers. Their only
to find work elsewhere.
open a
president of
55,000
square
City Market grocery stores, had
foot
"superstore'
quoted
on
Battlement
in the Rocky Mountain News
"Everybody is kind of shell-shocked at the moment. Every
In
now."5
people waited and reassessed
down the
The
"orderly
hour, they were just settling in and had new debts
and compared
bust of
a
the
leased within four days of May 2,
Garfield County. The
pursue another
an
runs"
editor
an editorial
titled 'Exxon cuts
Paper'
us
and
to Exxon's promise
dollar development 'in
argued, "Pardon
Exxon's
at the wake of Exxon's
their positions. The Grand
the infamous "White
multimillion
of skepticism about
an
orderly man
for retaining a similar measure
assurances of
due
regard
for
all
the
6
closing."
had ten subcontactors working un
people affected
by the Colony project's
Governor Richard Lamm accurately described the bust as 'a
der them.
one could conceive
corporation
stating,
decision,
bubble had really burst. On Battlement Mesa alone there were 26
No
to
$3,800
the $5 billion dollar project.
Sunday,
Junction Daily Sentinel published
employees.
for
and
Black
thing is in a holding pattern right
Overnight, planning for growth stopped. There had been
countless plans
radius were
Mesa on September 1st. He was
Overnight, hundreds of businessmen who had rapidly expanded
their businesses began to
90-mile
Joseph P. Prinster,
about
Root, T.I.C., Daniels Con
struction, and Gilbert-Western knew they would be laid
of
a week after
purchases of
choice was
a
on
from Brown & Root. A Denver Post writer explained,
$14.85
planned
Brown &
county officials
Tuesday May 4, men lined up at 7:30 a.m.
move out
from
be
their future.
employees of
that Exxon's departure
teenage driver making a
Pat O'Neill, locked into
their bank accounts, drank beer,
earned
announced on
owner
"mothballing"
the hundreds, the displaced
*****
closing the giant $5 billion
abruptness of a
corporate guillotine.
within a
paychecks
States Senator Gary Hart.
When Exxon
magazine commented
"the
Saloon
had left Parachute
Rocky Mountain News, the Rifle Tribune, the Rifle Telegram, the
and
all
promised state and
1982. Within
from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Denver Post, the
Glenwood Post,
the lives of
altered
What actually happened was far from orderly as
1976-
he knew personally and whose lives were
by the recent energy boom and bust.
had
to accompany their
deeply moving statements
get profound and
"the
Exxon
trained
historian, but he lived in Garfield County from
1983
radically
skills of a
the
Sunday would forever remain a benchmark
lease for his Parachute pub, caustically commented
speed of
1885-1985 to
be published in the fall of 1989 by the University Press of Colorado.
The
Fortune
open.
oil shale
screeching u-turn.
Ohio, 1986). The paper is excerpted and copywritten from the
forthcoming book Boomtown Blues: Colorado Oil Shale,
at
o
(American Culture
Green State University,
towns.
Manhattan
day in their lives, their fortunes, and their futures. The parachute had
History of Oil Shale
1885-1985"
a
the activity stopped
all
Directors had radically
of
thousands for whom Black
upon
Washington, D.C. for the author's
Booms in the Colorado River Valley,
Bowling
paper
small
decision reached in
Battlement Mesa. Nineteen managers on
mine site and on
Exxon's Board
communities of
history interviews conducted throughout
dissertation "Boomtown Blues: A Community
Ph.D. Program,
Colony
social and cultural
irrevocably changing from
was
into industrialized
of a
boardroom half a continent away,
boom
on
agricultural communities
and
pickup trucks,
bearded construction workers
accents of the
that western Colorado
Then overnight, because
in detail the
recent oil shale
Southern
soft
all verified
rural,
rights reserved.
Abstract
paper chronicles
the
even
had
on expensive
in the world,
that any company,
could simple
even
the largest
turn its back on
a
$920
disaster for Garfield
County.*
He said, 'It's
a blow
for the
state and
resources."
million
also a
235
blow for the country,
which needs alternate
energy
e
added, 'This is part of the
boom-and-bust cycle the West has been
^er^throughoutitshistory.-V
Charles Pence, President
BattlementMesa, Inc., was also interviewed by the Denver Post. He
stated,
Exxon, USA
that it was
surprise.*8
shutting down its Colony Project,
O'Neill wrote that 'carpetbaggers
house."
the
This thing, the announcement
by
As Ihe u-hauls moved out and
buzzed
caught us
the newcomers
around
ten cents
People referred to the "screw job"
a
had occurred
Another version of the t-shirt had the same
arrived
by a large X.
in
a
are
motto, only the word
In
an
to
and
done things
He added, "I
indication that we were in any
work
here I
By Wednesday
nities
million
for a $100
synthetic crude
line
with
from
out of
are
he
forces
at
million
of
dience that though the
Colony shutdown was a "big
the state's
ming growth
scenarios
development patterns,
tions. With
ment
and
all
three
into
major oil shale projects
in Garfield County
29,000
would
at
puter predicted
phase.18
in
an
of careers were
seven years
on
the
later,
multinational
Occidental Oil
who
middle management
on;
nor
West
has the impact
and
belatedly returned
on
the local
stages of boomtown
There is
be forgotten in
also a
western
commu
article
a
of
benchmark in
Colorado,
a
in
growth, but
distinct pattern
Sunday became
all
those mil
few years to fil
Sunday is the memorable event, but the bust itself con
social change
the boom,
has occurred
yet
following the bust than ever
the social science investigators
of
use,
when
are gone.
they can
they can really be of service to the energy-impacted
fail to
they studied during the boom years, those same
return.19
Reverend Lynn Evans
of
the Rifle
We began to lose the
community caring, commitment,
for
predict
each other.
themselves,
community.
in place, total employ
and concern
When everybody became concerned about
getting rich
then
lost the deeper concern for
everybody in the whole
Then [after the bust] I think it got worse.
Then they were
we
hard up. They really began
have reached 18,000 by the end of 1982
least 6,000 jobs would
million
Methodist-Presbyterian Church explains that
during the boom:
conclusive projec
three days after the shutdown,
by 1990. Now,
been
and
impact has been
will never
Force, which had been program
had finally come on-line with
real
time which
researchers
synfuels
to
and moved
John S. Gilmore defined the
communities which
au
glitch,"
an elaborate computer model
Chevron,
Though Black
be
Ironically on that same day, May 5,
still
Cumulative Impact Task
in 1980, but by
Their interests waned with their research dollars.
Now when
certain.12
development was
only now,
not
rustbelt workers who came
Far more
hold. Yet Victor Schroeder,
Denver
and
their projects, transferred their
occurred with
facility to han
a
people
the tank. Thousands
shrinkage.
building a $22 million dollar
put on
94,000
bust being understood.
like Exxon, Mobil,
Black
had found
tinues.
Colony to a refinery in
the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corporation, told
emptied
boomtown
out.
they
before the Environ
Because of the bust, $85
the bust
Par-
from the economy of Colorado's Western
ramifications of the
neglected
ter
dollar pipeline that
dollar Mountain Bell telephone switching
project
lions of dollars circulating in the local
economy took
an
Public Service Company of Colorado. A
dle Battlement Mesa calls was also
President
There
a rat
of
up there
somewhere
remained.16
The tiger had
the
"If Dolly
also said
in the Colorado River Valley. In his highly-acclaimed
Science,
any
Sunday week, La Sal Pipeline Co.,
Wyoming. Exxon backed
power-transmission
$2.3
of Black
cancelled plans
to have carried
Casper,
mode except go.
on
Locals
an environmentalist
the
batch
them to do it.
a population of
to their Eastern roots. The
am not aware of.
Exxon affiliate,
was
was never given
Agency forced
County had
the full
fallen
it."10
Dunkirk scenario, I probably would have smelled
differently."
17
closed
new
to Parachute but Exxon laid
Colony;
to the mine,
Exxon had
workers, absorbed their losses
interview published in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel,
prepare a
Protection
abandoned
Charles Pence stated, "With my 26 years in this, if someone had told
me
so
corporations
battered station wagon. They had driven
still need
mountain road
darter,"
The heaviest impact of the bust has
a
A
such witticisms as
closed
knocked over like so many dominoes,
Rocks."
At O'Leary's pub on Wednesday
its editorial page, 'Shale: We
came
up
again.
flat-busted."
Exxon had
real reason
the high
'shale
Slope.
babies to feed," the bewildered father explained. The Denver Post
argued on
proclaimed, "Jesus
nual payroll evaporated
and a new
Once the Brown &
contractor.
project would start
Beer-drinking-talk included
1985 only 83,000
and
Exxon."
1,800 miles in hopes of a job with Brown & Root. "We've got $25 left
and
by Brown & Root and Exxon was closing
to fire its general
gone, the
being told of the real reason the
were
Rumors flourished that Exxon had been
off."
Mesa
cross,"
town, compliments of
which
batch of very popular t-shirts proclaimed "Exxon Sucks
young couple
stickers
showing up in the bars
inscriptions such as 'Exxon: The sign of the double
was covered
bumper
mental
"Welcome to Colorado's newest ghost
"Rocks"
were
on
vertising the "Bust of '82."
with
Rooters
knew the
the dol
lar, others bought furniture, appliances and
automobiles. Quick-think
ing stencil artists even sold shirts, caps and bumper stickers ad
By Wednesday, May 5, new graffiti began
tales
ton lived in Parachute she'd be
an out
on
May 6,
shutdown.
with cost overruns
project so as
him
left, Pat
like flies on
Some bought televisions and stereos for
had been
disgusted
"Wehadap^foreverythi^^^^^^^^
knowwhatwe'regoingtodo.
by
On Thursday,
project
overextended.
the com
into the boom
They
were
looking out for number one. They were
deeper in debtr-my self included. I bought
into debt, too. I bought a
house, a lot more
home than I needed to buy. I'm over
extended, and almost everybody in
be lost just in Garfield
County!13
Rifle is
236
and went
over extended and
that makes you even more
grabby, greedy,
So it got worse. The
looking out for number one.
and
that got started in the boom became
values
For
about
everyone
their
living on the Western Slope,
growth, their
ily members,
"weekday
adjacent
all changed
in
neighbors,
satisfied with a
and ranches
A year
that had been
had
from the
high
higher tax
on
wafting
above
1984. But by the third
May,
spite
disillusioned,
boosterism
and
and
year
and vilified
threw
many
was
everyone-from
in the back of O'Leary's Pub
thirty-year
shutdown
Tribune,
and swept out
veteran with
entity
Nobody wanted to believe it. It was very
a person goes
not
through in reacting to
It was like
reacted.
from me. People sat there
oil shale's still
a
nn
retirement
his lot,
ready
picked out
orado
River to the
of
featured
a
stunning view
mean
al
the Col
have
In
south.
Colorado
were
would
employment
levels had
Grand Junction
to be
be the ideal
strongest
reached
are still
place.
in the
9.5%,
and
being
shaken.
Younger
dissolve,
and older men
a
men with
never recover
own abilities
but
un
14.2%
of
expecting
regain
lost credit. Two California developers filed
to
retire.
Exxon
the
and
For businessmen, it may take
lost. Exxon
a
$58
million
countersued and won
multinational corporation
my flower shop.
"
That's the
Things were going on that so clearly
estate
industry you'd
"
real estate saleswoman come
up to me,
of rah-rah boosterism that just about every
she came and
she was
into that
real estate person
is,
said, "You know this community has to survive. We
silver
lining in the cloud and write about the positive
things going
in the
community.
on
"
after
She wanted me
and
that
to no longer write anything about the
the fact. Let's ignore it
and
bust,
and
it'll go away [was
attitude].25
Denial
equipment
no
years
open
have to find the
her
badly
financial future can
going to
tendency to say, 'This can't be happening. And ifyou say that
this was two weeks
dreams have watched those dreams
a secure
believed, "Well, Colony may be gone, but
the bottom fell out of the real
sudden
newspaper I worked for
emotionally
has been
afford even
awarded
later
lark, but the devastating consequences
longer
but a jury
years
by the end of 1985,
felt. People may
financially. Confidence in their
against
sort
I think the Western Slope
Two
a
of a
I had a
during the recession,
nation."
taken away
long enough then it isn't happening.
residences were without occupants.
The boom may have been
the bust
anywhere
so I'm
My
You just don't
child wasn't
if you were a banker and you had millions of dollars in loans
and all
1982, Pat Dalyrmple, the President of Aspen Savings and
economy is possibly the
lawsuit
of
the Battlement Peaks to the
north and
Loan had said, "If one
western
which
here
and
not real.
foretold what was going to happen, but nobody wanted to accept tt I
home on Battlement Mesa.
Like Charles Pence, Battlement Mesa's President, Barrows had
loved one's
having a child snatched away from you or
perception versus the reality.
ar-
an
a
happening. It can't happen. I'm not say
believe it. It can't happen. It's
the bar in the
Exxon, who was ready to commission
remembers:
the reality of the world
ing that is exactly how Ifelt. This is how the community as an organic
Danny the Bum
Barrows, Project Director for Colony and
to draw plans for his
chitect
and
to the stages
death. You deny it. It's
de
bravado, Black Sunday continued to take its
morning, to Frank P.
of
its
having one run over by a car at the age of eight or ten.
who slept
all
editor of the Rifle
announced
like going to the altar andfinding out your wife-to-be had been
similar
toll.21
April
to community hospitals. In the
feature of the early bust phase was commu
main
sleeping with the minister.
bankrupt, had been forced to leave. De
The power of the bust affected
energy
energy market hit home with thundering force. It was incredible. It
con
Exxon. Local
"survivors,"
looking for work which they
1982, the ongoing problem with transients was only
When Exxon
held in Parachute the first week
the
summer of
nity denial. Jim Sullivan,
the 1983 anniversary of the
of
arrived
The problem of transient labor in the
social services and
just beginning. The
thick black
the street. The crowd drank beer,
"Survivors' Picnic"
the
survivors
existed.
burdens both to
May 1, 1983, the Black Sunday
which sent
fall approached more and more workers left the area.
boomtowns would exist for years and the wanderers would become
back to
late
and national press coverage accompanied
as
thought still
entanglements and
bonfire on Rifle's Main Street. The
the outside. Rumors persisted that Exxon would
on
yet as
All summer, transients had
rates.
themselves on their resilience,
bust as well
return,
crushed.
prices reverted
in legal
Colony project into the flames,
clouds of smoke
gratulated
a
sold at
Phase
including dozens of apartments on Battlement Mesa-but they were
only finished
Soon there would be
were mired
the bust began,
after
"Survivors"
pressed,
potential,
their proximity to fam
farm-based income were
enter
denial which lasted for
approximately nine
many projects which had previously been started were
completed,
Rising expectations of rural people who had
search of work.
Black Sunday, the bust had begun to
of shock and
Even though construction work slowed down
considerably,
months.
certainty
husbands drove farther and farther out of the
as
encumbered with much
in
and
one weekend.
their former owners, but titles
shale
absolute
own employment
widows"
previously been
Farms
in the bust.
weeks after
I-the phase
communities'
their friendships with
valley in
worse
Two
ofpoorer
20
new set
continued
from the
despite a huge three-day auction of surplus
Colony Shale Oil Project in late October, 1982.
Over 1,200 bidders netted Exxon $5 million for the sale items. The
to
Parks-Davis
dollar
sold,
the suit,
and
auction
the only
from the Alaskan
only "zero dollars
company explained that
auction
"every last
thing'
was
they had managed which was larger was
pipeline project
in 1977. Yet for some local busi
nessmen, denial may have been their only means of coping. Some
.24
and zero cents.
businesses
237
even opened after
the bust. The
momentum of
finaTwing
and construction plans saw new
(based on the
particularly
rfule bust in We7ern Colorado
which began
May 2, 1982)
square
tenants
who
terminal
Nine months. May, 1982-December 1982.
to
formation in the early stages. Shock.
Anger at being deceived.
rumor
The
killing
Construction slows. Business investment
out of
despite obvious downward
the
for sale
towards
for rent.
$10,000
January, 1983-June,
1984.
an
and
acre,
chose which
Psychological
two
and
"survivors."
Solidarity among
seek professional counseling.
to kin
networks.
The Boulton
Newcomers
Oldtimers turn
Bartering resumes.
developers had
clauses
acres
had been
wanted
to
chose
to
They were
in their contracts
paid
For
retain.
purchased
$20,000
down,
amount of
Foreclosures, bankruptcies. Drastic
then he
the best irrigation rights. This
With this
that the down
payment paid
land. The down
for
payment was all
a certain
they ever
When the other payment was due the buyer said,
politicians.
[ranchers] who took the down payment and put it on
"Nothing doing.
I
own your
house
and
it. You can have the rest of
around
another piece of
ever and some
land
lost
were
the choice land
it."
Those
left with larger debt than
everything.2^
June, 1984-January, 1986.
So Phase I
Psychological
spiral
Acceptance. Adjustment. Conciliation.
and associates move away.
Continued
the
of
the bust was characterized by
in the economy,
ganization.
Residents cope with drastically reduced
income. Persistent feelings of loss as friends
tensions due to
recent
an
got.
months.
practice
residents.
Exodus of
professional white collar workers. Excessive
housing vacancies. Residents move into
cheaper housing. Clean sweep of local
Eighteen
or
keep-usually the land with the
Many of those ranchers sold [their] land with
Phase m
exam
for $200,000
bust, Alice Boulton notes:
Marital
make a
purchase options
oil shale
shrinkage of social services.
and
the beginnings
a gradual
left
during the first nine
month period.
young, single construction workers from out-of-state
soon as
the work
ended.
by the company,
employed
draws latecomers who are welfare recipients.
Almost all newcomers who arrived with the
boom have left. Long term businesses
collapse. Proliferation of part-time jobs.
Oil
and
a profile of
Almost all the
were gone as
Middle management superintendents
longer because they were
Foreclosures, bankruptcies at slower rate.
Spiraling downward economy now affecting
those with superior finances. Cheap rent
downward
of a major social reor
An important component of Phase I analysis is
people who
marital
economic pressures.
Physical
effects:
their land
on
in to
and ran.
family has ranched continuously on Divide Creek in
agreement
effects:
come
County since before the turn of the century.
Physical
Time frame:
had
Garfield
tensions increase.
effects:
he
by
default, initial payments would be credited
acres with
further displaced local
and
who
their losses
the developer had
acres
in the state;
rates
receivership.
those developers
twenty
house on it or those
Acute depression. Isolation. Deep
questioning of self worth. Anomie.
Increasing sense of loss. Social trauma
disintegration of community.
Grand Junction Hilton built after
investors
some
case of
whichever acres
ple, if a house
months
Yet
that in
airport
Sunday, but soon began
Black
after
new
housing market or defaulted
which stated
commercial
2fi
into
gone
mall added additional
destroyed
and
The Grand Junction
real estate market cut
Continued influx of low-skilled
transients seeking work. Hundreds of houses
Eighteen
by 450%
flights. A
shrewd out-of-state
in the
within six months.
and
leases. The
merchants.
was expanded
indicators. Massive exodus of hourly wage
Phase II
.
the huge
of
immediately began to lose
in the county
owners
reduce and cancel
earners.
effects:
signed expensive
spring of 1986 it had
Physical
Timeframe:
the opening
with
which
the bust consistently had the lowest Hilton
Denial, disbelief, incredulity. Extensive
continues
foot Mesa Mall,
had
viability for downtown
Psychological
effects:
500,000
taxes to property
Phase 1
effects:
Grand Junction
oil
by Andrew Gulliford
Timeframe
crippled
start regardless of whether
The inertia of boomtown growth
economic sense.
they made sound
CSS^JJ?t9tta 0f 20th Centory Mii"ff Bust
businesses
more
stayed
financially secure, could be transferred
their homes
were purchased
by the firms which
them.
companies
significant ways.
seriously damaged the housing market in two
Because they were obligated to
buy back houses
from executives, the companies
sold more
than
a
hundred houses be
longing to Colony workers for far less than their assessed value.
action
238
That
further lowered neighborhood
property values of single family
homes. Then within twelve
Union
Black
months of
drastically lowered the rents on
during the boom. Deciding where in the valley the recreation
facility would be built became a major issue. County officials could
passed
Sunday both Exxon and
buildings which they
apartment
not
had built on Battlement Mesa or in Parachute or Rifle. The corpora
tions thus gutted
an
already damaged
County investors found
out what
rental
housing market. Garfield
services were
it was like to have corporate neigh
of the
approximately
bust lasted from Black
nine months.
months of
a
worth of coupons
paid,
and
the
for food
and
seventh month rent
poor
that Exxon only had 35%
social
trauma occurred
shale
bust ceased to be
Institutions
services were
yet
greatly
cable
problems.
Bat
lost their jobs
self-concepts.
and
roles and
during this second phase when denial of the
collapse.
which
had
of
new
facilities with large debts
spread out
Religious
over a much smaller segment of church membership.
and women who were
experiencing personal financial
stress
most
local businesses failed
of miners
customers.
cattle
from every
shift
had to
nances which
converted
into
a
had been
passed
and western
and pets was abolished
established
along with the
position of
once again
be
Attitudes
Sonja Fritzlan
changed.
tolls
on
People became isolated
sustained
was
she
A
against
you're
stray
in
a
are sort
the mountains, began to
and
themselves
Silt,
or
as
bottom. They're not talking
county humane
Parachute
as part of
"the
change.
rather
about
down there
and alienated.
in the Colorado River
delineated
empathy
by the river
may
You did
some
and understand
are
and
families which had
once
resources and
socially
bickered
and
contest occurred over recreation
now
You know
business with him or your neighbor did
and
because it's
$700
are stages.
never
you
may be
next.
You've lost your job, but you'll get
another one
Well,
you can't make
it this month. But
it. I can still afford it [you say to
because] I can get another job. So you go and you find out
that there aren't any
239
by it,
And it's going to
been without work before. But you've got your
a month mortgage.
yourself,
district legislation which had been
affected you.
You couldn't help but feel an
you've got savings so you can make
fought for
A particularly divisive
moan, but you're forced to sit
if not sympathy for someone else's financial trouble because it
There
thought of themselves
emotionally,
and quarreled.
aren't good.
looking forward to the
portend your future.
because you've
as a whole.
valley,"
the effects of the bust
things turning up, they want to hit
business with him. So you can piss
families in
Residents began to think of
than in the valley
and
During the bust, despite
bottom. If someone goes belly-up that affects you, because he probably
living in their own small communities of New Castle,
Communities
limited
living
seen
of battered. Attitudes
bad situation when people
Everything was very interlocked.
a psychological and physical space
mining camps
lost her business and her house.
They stopped visiting friends and neighbors because they did not want
in
the first pioneer families and
ranch.
to discuss financial troubles. The
Valley,
the homes were
born Sonja Seivers, great granddaughter
hurt you. While you may be embittered
sense of
even
bankruptcies.
long range impact is as much psychological as it is anything
People
owes you money.
personal
and
forced to leave. Jim Sullivan left the Rifle Tribune for the
The
else.
shot.
As the bust became more severe,
creased.
Men became uncomfortable in their forced domestic
home-bound isolation. In many cases,
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. He has
Stray dogs found running loose in a farmer's pasture could
officer.
still em
throughout the valley. He states:
County ordi
laws
forced to babysit if their wives were
and were
The implosion of a collapsing economy results in the expulsion of
dis
during the boom were repealed.
Garfield County ordinance which had
included role re-definitions for fathers who had
the years moved down valley to
people
their doors for lack of
country
they once again began to
Family fallout among both newcomers
local people. Newcomers filed bankruptcy and left.
including over 200
the Cattle Company. It too folded.
and services.
Yet she resolutely refused to file bankruptcy as did most of the other
During the boom in Rifle, the local auction sales ring for
buyers had been
cotheque called
dogs
close
economy continued to wane,
residents
and marital
Garfield County families turned to one another
hard work and fiscal prudence,
found it
businesses in Rifle, Colorado. Bars which had been receiving five
busloads
counseling for financial
German families who had worked in the Aspen
over
men
increasingly difficult to meet their tithing obligations.
Within Phase n
time as those
their descendants meant little in the face of
community financial
Church membership de
dramatically as people moved away, leaving congregations
into
same
families had networks of friends and
oldtime
The work ethic which had
the boom. Social
arisen with
oldtime
lost due to foreclosures
clined
expanded
the
Housekeeping and childraising chores often violated paternal
ployed.
a psychological alternative.
had
cash
longtime
and
per month.
investors in the valley compete
pared and reduced.
The
barter for goods
all utilities
Most of the community
the
and as
television,
for free, leased for $295
occupancy.
collapsed which
at
hang on and console one another while the
newcomers sought professional
by May of 1984, the housing market was so
those
rates,
fireplace,
apartments on
furniture purchases,
circumstances could private
with
rental
relations and could
departures,
during Phase II or within eighteen
pool, tennis court,
$300
Under no
wave of
Black Sunday. Two-bedroom furnished
tlement Mesa with
from boom to bust so the need
being cut back by the county. Schisms developed
there. Those
were still
Sunday to Christmas or
After the first initial
three times that many people left
shift
counseling increased
between the newcomers who had come in and the
oldtime families who
bors who had decided to disinvest.
Phase I
adequately conceptualize the
for mental health
other jobs.
So you tell yourself again, well, I've
been unthout work
J"* you
before, but I've always found another job.
keep looking and you keep looking, and all a
of
dn't have any
money
So you go
to make mortgage
payments. You're
because
maybe a
blue collar worker and you don't have
any
income. Where do you go?
You don't go to social services. People like
don't go to social
services, but what
are you
going to do? There
denial, but then you needed to blame somebody.
was
Exxon,
could
those goddam
or
politicians,
Phase II dislocations included
different views,
the scenic
educated
were eliminated.
Rifle went from
that
a paid staff of
their salaries
would
fifteen
to the boom has
and
rates
to the bust is
arisen
divorce in
another
effect of
to high
ily ties and roots.
full
employment
had
returned
gone
low. The
for their
and
to stay in the valley
29
always
have left the
had
always
officials and
entered
products
the
picture.
the
members
pre-boom
Businesses
have declined,
expanding
stretching and
and businesses
desires for
boomtown
also
and
do
which
equilibrium
clock on a
losses have
1984,
more
meant
than
material.
idle
since
six
the
oil and gas
and
that
boomtown grow,
take their former
feet tall
3,000
People
shale
areas of
food
Fer
sale.
and
to
in
no
In
publicity
businesses that have
an oil
ten 85-ton
$350,000
refinery
with
159
The
store.
each
in 1981
"A whole
on
new
May
tier is
every trick to stay out of
enough."34
continued to attract a
and norms
feet of
cubic
and were
in the Daily Sentinel
pulled
area
dump trucks with tires
Sunday lamented,
have
existed
including an agricultural seed
firm,
cost
since
transient
rental and
to
and
hous
they
what was once a stable
Filling up the area's apartment buildings and
and other
posed additional problems
receive
for the
they needed family counseling, individual counseling,
health
services at a
social service staff.
educational
240
that
residents.33
buckets capable of holding 189
These latecomers
ager, the director
Junction families found that 10%
of Grand
im
spur eco
admitted
Colorado. One-third of the Rifle population began to
and public
a
they released
houses were welfare recipients from Denver
stamps.
closes
a number of
the hard-core unemployed, because low
county because
communi
families,
up for
sell
who
time
when
there
By the end of 1985,
of social
seventeen other positions
were
business
Report"
they
3,745
article published
agricultural community.
small rental
gains.
over
and
industries
brought totally different values
their
There is
1985
December,
have failed,
and
a
ing rates were the best in the state. Latecomers arrived
after
shape.
in
22-year-old-independent grocery
the bust. An
population of
industry
remain unfulfilled.
boomtown
to be
less. Small
realize
major
years
trying to
are still
businessmen feel
bankruptcy are now finding that it still hasn't been
no
value of
every time
and
the county, though
The gigantic trucks
beginning to fall.
who
in 1985, "There
County Economic Development Steering
and
4, 1986 to commemorate Black
but other
failed mining boom. For many
eclipsed
a survey
citizens
added
the bust there have been
Brown & Root office tried to
had successfully
ranchers
the
accommodate
not rebound and
economic
the
to
told
economy,
became worth less
in Mesa County,
Of 41 000 homes
September
That is
work.
and a
Former oil
city council
return of
downward. Coal
turning back
employees,
ac
existed, but people
find
County,
stage of
fear. Are they going to be
and
an electrical component
company,
their children may be forced to fol
could always
of
its doors in
years closed
County Economic Development
diversification
In Mesa
Now their grandchildren
elsewhere.
of
A Garfield
for longer than ten
their fam
the boom because it
welcomed
River Valley now ruefully
towns in the Colorado
vent
area and
III
phase
31
business block had few
or other retail
1981 the county has lost 6,472 jobs
Equally pernicious is
bust on youth who became
For
for generations have folded.
agricultural
nomic
true.
wait for the
factors have
spiraled
and
pattern of out-migration
patient and
ties
"The Garfield
bankruptcies.
Robert Nuffer says, "I think that
but he
loss
Committee had been formed
children and grandchildren some of whom
from lucrative jobs
Government
operated
Oldtimers had
looking for work,
chosen
longer
the boom
With
1,600 homes.
moving through that final
there
shopped
was
developments found
of acceptance and resolution and
on with
portant changes.
management of
County may have led people to file for
wages and who now
counselor
kind
next?"
county's municipal ex
even another state.
some
that have
32
on
idea it
no
[population] growth in
reached
street an entire
communities are
getting
replaced
impossible, because marital problems that may
county or
their time
of
sense~a renewed sense~of
divorces, but accurately linking divorce
in Garfield or Mesa
the long range
customed
come
at
people
and
Castle, Silt, Rifle,
the
altered
the
years of
work on real estate
businesses closing in the Rifle area,
lobbyist
Parachute have been
of
the last 15
life,"
look
they found. But their positions
professionals to one
the
across
depression into
have been useful in mitigating future booms.
have
had
many
totally destroyed any collective managerial memory which
With bankruptcies
have
They had
leave, but I had
stated
families,
a significant number of
drugstore in business for thirty
October, 1985;
they were committed to
The departure of growth
reduced.
so essential
pertise and
it.
a
tenants. Mental health
The Northwest Area Council of Governments in
Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction,
ficials
and
All the city managers for New
a secretary.
and
and revitalized
backgrounds,
and recreational values
In Rifle,
Nobody
almost all of the young, professional
had come into the
valley
people who
to
come
themselves spending 85%
villain.28
idea
In 1985, foreclosures
Lawyers who had
So they blamed
those goddam Arabs.
or
inflict that much harm on you and not be a
represents
County."30
an
reasons, had to
of economic
that high. That
Mesa
be leaving. Mayor Mike Pacheco
people would
Daily Sentinel, "I had
in the
white collar worker
not a
you
7,400
or about
sudden you
backgrounds
were major reductions
the Garfield
County man
services, three service caseworkers,
had been
eliminated.
of students
from this
and
Because of the poor
new
population, the
13
Rifle High School had to
offer
three levels
of
English to
abilities.35
varying student
The boom has passed,
in the Colorado River
and communities
Valley have been forced to live with dislocated economies and
psychologically bruised
though
by
their
environmental concerns
to their nesting
There
areas.
ways
be
at
the
have lessened. Eagles
are
fewer incidents
mouth of
of
a
lasting
An
peace.
economies of
the world
The
ergy, and the
rock
oil shale
are still
that burns
are
of
fueled
still
lies
recent
boom may
Geographer A. David Hill from the
University of Colorado had
boomtown interviews in northwest Colorado in 1981 for a
seminar on the quality of life. In the summer of 1982
he went back to
conduct interviews two months after the bust. The
"shale darter" ref
erence is from Hill's July, 1982 interview with Ed
Weeks, manager,
Rifle Chamber of Commerce.
conducted
will al
come again.
by enormous appetites
a
ifi
The
for
to author, multiple in
15
and
Uintah Basin
energy bust is only
and written notes
terviews, October, 1985.
returning
poaching deer
Roan Creek. Yet fossil fuels
a non-renewable resource.
truce-not
oil
Pat O'Neill interview
elk, and little danger exists to the threatened species
hookless cactus
people
in fortunes. In the
rapid change
before families regain their equilibrium,
it will be years
shale region
Cumulative Impact Task Force cover letter,
draft, May 6, 1982.
Proposed revisions August 18, 1982. Paul Ferraro and Paul
Nazaryk,
Assessment of Cumulative Environmental Impacts
of Energy
Development in Northwestern Colorado, Review Draft
Report, Col
orado Department of
Health, in cooperation with the U.S. Environ
mental Protection Agency, Region VIII.
accommodate
Tony Link, "Survey shows population
1985: 1. Also Tony Link, "Vacancy rate
Daily Sentinel 5 February 1986.
en
deep in dark layers of shale.
drop,"
above
Daily Sentinel 8 July
14%, survey
says,"
17
Gail Pitts, "Exxon will Close Shale Oil Project-Annual Payroll
Loss Could be $85 million, " Denver Post 3 May 1982: 1.
18
John S.
Gilmore, "Boom Towns May Hinder Energy Resource
Science 191, February 13, 1976: 535-540.
Development,"
Boomtown Blues: Oil Shale
and
Exxon's Exit
Endnotes
Through the Colony Project, including Battlement Mesa housing
for 25,000 people, was to cost $5 billion dollars, less than that was
spent.
The $920
million
dollar figure
Tracy, "Exxon's Abrupt Exit from
comes
Shale,"
Very little had been published on Western Energy boomtowns
Two contemporary articles, how
Jane H. Lillydahl and Elizabeth W. Moen, "Planning, Man
aging, and Financing Growth and Decline in Energy Resource Com
Colorado"
The Journal ofEnergy
munities: A Case Study of Western
& Development 8-2 Sprint (1983): 211-229, and Elizabeth W. Moen,
now
from Eleanor Johnson
Fortune, May 31, 1982:
106. For an excellent news story in which the impact of the bust was
"overnight"
heightened by the use of the word
as a sentence lead-in (a
journalistic device which I have borrowed), see the entire issue of The
Weekly Newspaper (Glenwood Springs, Colorado) Vol. 6, No. 41, May
5, 1982. The two-inch headline states BUST! and the smaller headline
reads "JOLT: Exxon's overnight shutdown stuns
Shale,"
"Voodoo Forecasting: Technical, Political
situation in the Colorado River Valley, but both are excellent
introductions to the topic for the White River Valley and the town of
Meeker.
Fortune, May 31, 1982:
Open,"
Lynn
Colorado River
1985.
21
For the 1983 Black
Energy
Workers,"
"Exxon
Daily Sentinel 4 May 1982. For additional
Daily Sentinel, 3 May 1982.
Rifle Telegram, 5 May 1982. "We will
Rifle Tribune, 5 May
1982. "Boom and Bust..
Meeker Herald, 6 May 1982.
and
"Slow on
Washington Post, 6 May 1982.
Daily Sentinel 1
Cindy Parmenter, "4,100 jobs May Be Lost in
Denver Post 4 May 1982: 9A.
Oil Shale Shut
down,"
Closure,"
Denver Post 4
May
24
"
"
The Week the 'Chute Didn't Open, Colorado River
Journal August 1982: 29.
10
O'Neill,
"
Shale: We
week editorials
still need
it, "Denver Post 5 May 1982. By the
began "All
right
already, the sky is
12
Charles Pence
"Colony
quoted
in the Daily Sentinel 5
Shutdown Shocks
Workers,"
May 1982:
Exxon
claim
25
Jim Sullivan, former
Sentinel. Interviewed by
Daily
Tosco,"
and
Exxon lied
Rifle Tribune, 11 August
project"
editor
Rifle Tribune
author at
Glenwood
about shale
the offices
Exxon,"
suit against
and writer
of
Daily
the Daily Sentinel,
Grand Junction, Colorado, October 16, 1985.
May 1982: 47.
Denver Post 9
sues
Post 21 April 1983: 1, and "Two developers lose
Daily Sentinel 1 May 1983.
Sentinel 12 May 1982.
11
"Developer
1982: 1. "Developers
next
falling,"
not
6,7.
23
Andrew Gulliford, "From Boom to Bust: Small Towns and Energy
Slope,"
Small Town, Vol. 13, No.
Development on Colorado's Western
5, (March-April,1983) pp. 15-22.
1982: 9A.
9
May 1983:
22
Frank P. Barrow, former Project Director, Colony Project,
EngleExxon, U.S.A. Interview by author at 10 Huntwick Lane,
1986.
March
12,
wood, Colorado,
.Live
Shale,"
Ray Flack, "Housing Hit Hard by
town,"
cedes,"
survive,"
Q
13
Unger, "Shale's empty promises bust Colorado
breather,"
"Bust,"
out"
pulls
Learn,"
7
Showcase-
Sunday anniversary see: "1983
special edition, Daily Sentinel
Environment"
side after
runs,"
"Exxon
the
Kansas City Times 6 April 1983: 1. "Town sees a bright
bust,"
Kansas City Star 1 May 1983: 3B. Gary
boom goes
Schmitz, "Oil shale prospects continue to worsen,", Steve McMillan,
and "foreclosures mount as growth re
"Parachute takes a
16.
cuts and
editorials see:
and
March 1983. Robert
boom
fi
Evans, minister, United Methodist-Presbyterian Church,
Street, Rifle Colorado. Interviewed by author October 25,
200 E. 4th
Kit Miniclier and Pete Chronis, "Life Turns Upside Down for
Shale Plant
Denver Post 4 May 1982: 1.
Rocky Mountain News 4 May 1982:
Ethical Issues Regard
the bust
20
Pat O'Neill, "The Week the 'Chute Didn't
Journal July/August 1982: 13.
and
Growth,"
105.
3
a state of economic chaos.
are
Population Research
ing the Projection of Local Population
and Policy Review, 3 (1984) 1-25. Neither article specifically addresses
county."
Tracy, "Exxon's Abrupt Exit from
in
ever,
26 Andrew
Alexander, "Following the boom: A story
Daily Sentinel 4 May 1986: 5A.
4D.
determination,"
241
of
persistence,
27
Alice Boulton letter to
author received
June 17 1986.
,
28
f.*11"1 interview by author Grand
Junction, Colorado, October
c
1985. Also see Tony Link, "Foreclosure isn't always
16,
Daily
fatal,"
Sentinel 16 February 1986: 1.
29
The best article dealing with the impact of the boom on youth is
William R. Freudenburg, "Boomtown Youth: The Differential Impacts
of
Rapid
Community Growth on Adolescents and
Adults,"
American
Sociological Review 49 (1984): 697-705.
30
James T. Bernath, "Survey Results: 10 percent of families say
they intend to pull up stakes,
Daily Sentinel 17 Sept. 1984:
1.
move,"
31
Charley Blaine, "Oil glut puts boom town on the
Today 18 November 1985: 1.
rocks,"
USA
32
Robert Nuffer, Associate Director, Sopris Mental Health Center,
Glenwood Springs. Interviewed by author January 16, 1986.
oo
Garfield
County Economic Development Steering Committee,
Chairman, Garfield County Economic Development Re
Glenwood Springs, Co: December, 1985: 1.
Nick Massaro,
port,
34
fall,"
see the previously
For the "whole new tier beginning to
Andrew Alexander, "Following the boom: a story of persistence,
in the Daily Sentinel, 4 May 1986: 5A.
cited
determination"
35 Dariel
Clark, Superintendent Re-2 Schools, 822 East Avenue,
1986.
Rifle, Colorado. Interview with author January 3,
242