Maple Falls, Washington
Maple Falls, Washington recalled gauzy days when big tubes in stately radios were aglow. “It’s up to us,” said Caroline. “We can’t expect the BLM or the Department of the Interior or anyone else in Washington to stop this. Too much money’s at stake. “The history of...
Ocotillo Wells, California
Ocotillo Wells, California melted in the spackled rain. The late summer storm was unexpected and lashed the desert town with unusual fury. The five oilmen whose shots missed the par three green stayed behind at the compound in Mexico. Later that morning, they were...
Ramona, California
Ramona, California unloaded the last of the boxcars that came down from Reno. Hardened men soaked down all the wooden crates with 100VLL aviation fuel. The bonfire would begin at dusk. The wind swirled up only when a ball was placed on a tee. Otherwise it was dead...
San Felipe, California
San Felipe, California slept in until the parade of saxophone ghosts grew impossible to ignore. After a breakfast of tetelas, huevos rancheros and chilaquiles, the six oilmen were driven to a nearby golf course. Their clubs were put on carts and the oilmen gathered on...
Jamul, California
Jamul, California knew the risks and how best to deflect them. All it took was concentration and immediate action, the kind seagulls show when they spot unguarded food on a beach towel. Each of six oilmen was escorted to a well-appointed casita. In each, a numbered...
Potrero, California
Potrero, California never quite managed to turn its back on Mexico despite a century of temptations, both illicit and sublime. The border was just a few miles south of town. The rest of America, which Potrero clung to with the desperation of a delusional day trader,...
The Otay Mesa
The Otay Mesa was the last the six oilmen saw of the United States. The navy-blue van pulled into a low-slung warehouse. The oilmen were ushered downstairs and instructed to walk through a tunnel. The fluorescent tubes flickered in a maniacal rhythm. The whir of the...
Cathedral City, California
Cathedral City, California glanced up at the purple face of the San Jacinto Mountains and liked what it saw. The six oilmen looked hopefully out the windows of the navy-blue van but noticed nothing either promising or recognizable. They could tell they were heading...
Borrego Springs, California
Borrego Springs, California sashayed into the home stretch of marinating a fifty-pound batch of al pastor. When the dark navy-blue van passed the road into their resort, one of the oilmen told the driver he had missed the turn. The driver said nothing. The six oilmen...
Dulzura, California
Dulzura, California sang along with Sam Cooke as if the angels had never left town. Two men in dark suits emerged from the navy-blue van. They approached the six golfers and invited them to get in for a ride back to the resort. The golfers were happy to be on their...
White River City, Colorado
White River City, Colorado listened with the attentiveness of a demure piano tuner. “It’s ridiculous,” said Caroline. “Fine, I suppose, if you want to draw attention to a cause and stir up a bunch of ill will. But these people with Just Stop Oil who protest by taking...
Ocotillo, California
Ocotillo, California roasted beneath a harsh white sky striped with terror. A hundred miles to the west, where ocean breezes pressed up against the slopes of the coastal range, it was cooler. After the five men on the patio overlooking the eighteenth green finished...
Malone, Utah
Malone, Utah couldn’t have been culpable. The mountain lions were out of town when it all went down. “Here’s the data,” Caroline told them. “In 2022, oil and gas companies spent $124 million lobbying the federal government. “As a number, it’s meaningless, just a bore...
Paisley, Oregon
Paisley, Oregon kept sending teenage brides off to Reno. They played video poker and amassed small fortunes while their worthless husbands drank putrid porter. They were resourceful young women, endowed with common sense and perseverance. They knew a bet with...
Malta, Montana
Malta, Montana knew it was just a matter of time before another batch of slick outsiders showed up. You could mark it on the calendar. They’d fly up from Dallas into the Bozeman-Yellowstone International Airport. During the flight, they stared down at BLM land with...
Middleton, Idaho
Middleton, Idaho might not have been full of Rhodes Scholars. But it knew a thing or two about greed. They all knew what the oil companies were up to, setting off thousands of explosions a mile down, busting up slabs of shale and spiraling poisons through the land....
Lawen, Oregon
Lawen, Oregon, along with other Oregon towns like Buchanan, looked back to a time when people didn’t know what to make of darkness. It hadn’t been all that long ago. Simply because it was unknown, darkness was threatening. It could be nothing else. Only when...
Crane, Oregon
Crane, Oregon sized up its reasons for cautious optimism. They struck her as a hedged bet. If optimism was cautious, it probably couldn’t withstand much of a challenge. She was swept along on floodwaters of discontent and carried through dim light into a room of...
