Shrnutí

Popis

The discovery of oil within the Swanson River Field by the Richfield Oil Corp. on July 19, 1957 fused the words oil and Kenai into almost synonymous terms. Although clouds of impending conflict had been building for some time, it was following discovery that moose and oil became something akin to incendiary icons hotly debated not only in the halls of Congress and the upper echelon of the Eisenhower Administration including the Interior Department, but the Alaska State Legislature, an elite corps of Anchorage businessmen, coalition of various national conservation groups as well as an assortment of various politicos, hardened homesteaders and just plain folk at the local levelincluding the then Kenai National Moose Range Refuge Manager and staff. Residents of the Kenai Peninsula were suddenly thrust into a rapidly progressing oil boom with an industrial behemoth which, at best, it poorly understood and was illprepared to support. Social and economic conditions in the Kenai, Soldotna and Nikiski then Nikishka areas were transformed overnight from a predominately fisheries based seasonal economy to one of constantly flowing fast cash, call girls and correspondingly inflated real estate values.