This section contains 181 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) |
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In 1911, tiring of life as an itinerant gambler, Hunt made his way to Lake Village, Arkansas, intending to raise cotton. His initial ventures wiped out by floods, he returned to gambling, eventually opening a gambling parlor in the boomtown of El Dorado, about seventy miles west of Lake Village. El Dorado was an oil town, filled with wildcatters, roughnecks, speculators, and prostitutes — perfect for gamblers. Naturally enough, Hunt began dabbling in oil drilling. It was a gamble. Hunt knew next to nothing about geology and had to lease his drilling equipment. He nonetheless proved lucky, striking oil, and then watching the wells go dry, quietly absorbing the nuances of the oil business. By the end of the 1920s he also developed a pattern of oil speculation, where he waited until wildcatters struck oil and then raced to the oil fields to secure leasing rights. He also...
This section contains 181 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) |
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