I did some work at the Sour Lake dome in Texas and also over at Ged Lake near Sulphur, La. back in the late 70's and found both of those places to be loaded with oilfield relics. After each boom came
a bust and everything was just left to rust. One story I heard about Sour Lake was
that during the original boom times they built a big hotel to house all of the workers but one night it sank into a big
sinkhole caused by all the drilling activity washing out a cavity in the salt.
If you ever get up to Kilgore, Texas be sure to through the East Texas Oil Museum. I partnered with a gentleman on a couple deals who actually was an oil scout during
the early days of the East Texas field. He
and I went through the museum and he showed
me his picture posted there in several places.

there's another one (oil field museum) in or near russel,ks right off i-70

I've got to go to Longview in the next couple of months to chase down a formerly producing mineral interest my grandfather bought around 1950. I've never seen that museum, but would love to. Who knows, maybe I'll even look up Hothgar.
One of my favorite people was a guy named LLoyd Butler in Houston. He was a 13 year old black kid in Kilgore, and used to make a living steering people to crooked card and dice games in Kilgore during the boom. LLoyd was a kind, honest, and gracious gentlemen who did a lot of community service in Houston. Times were really rough on black people in that red neck part of the world, but he really grew past his roots. I'll bet that the streets of Tashkent are just as wild today!
I like poking around old oil fields, a sort of reverse ecotourism. Sour Lake, Spindletop, Saratoga and Batson are all fun. The Spindletop museum is only O.K..I get more of the real flavor by looking at the hundred of thousands of broken pieces of whiskey bottle glass than the buildings erected by the city of Beaumont.The Big Thicket Museum at Saratoga has a bunch of great photographs. The old AAPG oilfield reports generally have a lot of history of the areas, but, like all technological history, its pretty obscure.

I've got to go to Longview in the next couple of months to chase down a formerly producing mineral interest my grandfather bought around 1950. I've never seen that museum, but would love to. Who knows, maybe I'll even look up Hothgar.
One of my favorite people was a guy named LLoyd Butler in Houston. He was a 13 year old black kid in Kilgore, and used to make a living steering people to crooked card and dice games in Kilgore during the boom. LLoyd was a kind, honest, and gracious gentlemen who did a lot of community service in Houston. Times were really rough on black people in that red neck part of the world, but he really grew past his roots. I'll bet that the streets of Tashkent are just as wild today!
I like poking around old oil fields, a sort of reverse ecotourism. Sour Lake, Spindletop, Saratoga and Batson are all fun. The Spindletop museum is only O.K..I get more of the real flavor by looking at the hundred of thousands of broken pieces of whiskey bottle glass than the buildings erected by the city of Beaumont.The Big Thicket Museum at Saratoga has a bunch of great photographs. The old AAPG oilfield reports generally have a lot of history of the areas, but, like all technological history, its pretty obscure.