White River Oil Shale Country
The oil shales of Utah are a potential source of oil for the nation. White River Oil Shale Corporation (WROSC) was formed by three major oil companies – Phillips, Sohio and Sunoco to mine oil shale in eastern Utah. In 1974 they leased the land from the BLM and started environmental impact work. In 1980 I was working as a field technician/photographer for Bio Resources, Inc, owned by Dr. Val Grant and Mr. Peter Kung. BRI is located in Logan, UT. The company had won the contract to do the environmental impact statements for WROSC.
I received a grant from Bio Resources for this series of photographs. It was intended to show the area before mining and to help with mitigation. During mining and after mining photo sessions were also planned. Although oil shale mining never began because it was not economically viable, it is currently being reconsidered. This series documents an ecosystem that is still fairly undisturbed.
These photographs were taken with a 4x5 camera from the best available vantage points. The objective was to make archival silver gelatin photographs. Therefore they were all slightly selenium toned then some were also gold toned to acquire a cooler effect. The total series has as many as 100 negatives. These twelve images are in the collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
