Black Gold is a collection of nine articles looking at specific individuals, oil fields, issues, and oil companies in the history of Wyoming's oil industry. Individually, each chapter focuses on an important item or incident in that history; together they illustrate patterns in the development of Wyoming's oil industry. The reader will come to see the important roll played by big business and the federal government in Wyoming's oil history. This roll at times contributed to, and at other times retarded, the development of Wyoming's oil industry.