University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Wyoming Energy Boom Niobrara Oil Play Oral History Project, 2011-2014

The University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Wyoming Energy Boom Niobrara Oil Play Oral History Project was conducted by the American Heritage Center’s Alan K. Simpson Institute for Western Politics and Leadership. The focus of the project was to learn from the boom and bust economic cycle that has historically pervaded Wyoming’s economy by exploring the social, environmental, and economic impacts of a potential energy boom beginning to occur in the Niobrara Oil Play.

Archivist, Leslie Waggener and camerawoman, Ali Grossman of University of Wyoming Television interviewed over 60 people, from 2011-2014, involved in and impacted by the activities to develop and extract oil from the Niobrara Oil Play. The interviewee’s included ranchers, business owners, town leaders, law enforcement personnel, school administrators, social services employees, energy industry officials and workers, and others from Southeast Wyoming in Converse, Goshen, Laramie, and Platte counties.