Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, as well as a diverse residential neighborhood of some 58,000 people. A2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs, Downtown Los Angeles is known for its government buildings, parks and other public places. The earliest known settlements in the area of what is now Downtown Los Angeles was by the Tongva, on September 4,1781, the city was founded by a group of settlers who trekked north from present-day Mexico. Land speculation increased in the 1880s, which saw the population of the city explode from 11,000 in 1880 to nearly 100,000 by 1896. Infrastructure enhancements and the laying of a street grid eventually brought development south of the settlement into what is today the Civic Center. By 1920, the private and municipal rail lines were the most far-flung and most comprehensive in the world in mileage. By this time, an influx of residents and aggressive land developers had transformed the city into a large metropolitan area.
Rail lines connected four counties with over 1,100 miles of track, during the early part of the 20th century, banking institutions clustered around South Spring Street, forming the Spring Street Financial District. The Los Angeles Stock Exchange was located on the corridor from 1929 until 1986 before moving into a new building across the Harbor Freeway, Broadway became the nightlife and entertainment district of the city, with over a dozen theater and movie palaces built before 1932. Numerous specialty stores flourished including those in the business which gave rise to the Downtown Jewelry District. Among these early jewelers included the Laykin Diamond Company and Harry Winston & Co. both of which found their beginnings in the Alexandria Hotel at 5th and Spring Streets. The Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal opened in May,1939, unifying passenger service among local, regional. It was built on a scale and would be one of the last of the Great Railway Stations built in the United States. Following World War II, the development of the Los Angeles freeway network, many corporate headquarters slowly dispersed to new suburbs or fell to mergers and acquisitions.
The once-wealthy Bunker Hill neighborhood became a haven for low-income renters, the drastic reduction in the number of residents in the area further reduced the viability of streetfront businesses that would be able to attract pedestrians. For most Angelenos, downtown became a destination as they would come into the area for a particular objective. This period saw the clearing and upzoning of the neighborhood as well as the shuttering of the Angels Flight funicular railway in 1969. Angels Flight resumed operation in 1996 for a period of five years, on March 15,2010, the railway once again opened for passenger service following extensive upgrades to brake and safety systems
Sinclair Oil Corporation
Originally a New York corporation, Sinclair Oil reincorporated in Wyoming in 1976. The corporations logo features the silhouette of a green dinosaur. It is ranked on the list of US largest privately owned corporations and it owns and operates refineries, gas stations, hotels, a ski resort and a cattle ranch. Sinclair has long been a fixture on American roads with its logo and mascot. During September 1919, Harry F. Sinclair restructured Sinclair Oil and Refining Corporation, Sinclair Gulf Corporation, in 1932, this new entity was renamed Consolidated Oil Corporation. In 1943, it was renamed Sinclair Oil Corporation, near the beginning of the Great Depression, Sinclair sold the remaining interest in its pipeline subsidiary to Standard Oil Company for US$72.5 million. During the Great Depression, Sinclair saved a number of petroleum companies from receivership or bankruptcy. In 1932, Sinclair purchased the assets of Prairie Oil and Gass pipeline and producing companies in the southern United States, the purchase of Prairie gave Sinclair a 65% interest in Producers and Refiners Corporation, which Sinclair subsequently acquired when Parco entered receivership in 1934.
Lastly, in 1936, Sinclair purchased the East Coast marketing subsidiary of Richfield Oil Company, Richfield reorganized, resulting in the creation of the Richfield Oil Corporation. Sinclair was instrumental in transferring capital and managerial assets into Richfield, thirty years later, Richfield merged with Atlantic Refining, located on the East Coast, forming Atlantic Richfield. The exhibit included an animated model of a brontosaurus. The exhibit proved so popular it inspired a line of rubber brontosaurs at Sinclair stations, complete with wiggling heads and tails. Later, inflatable dinosaurs were given as promotional items, and a version appeared as a service-station attendant in advertisements. Some locations have a model of the mascot straddling the buildings entrance. In the early 1960s Sinclair came up with the Turbo-S aircraft oils used for reliability in commercial jets, military jets, guided missiles and space exploration rockets. At the New York Worlds Fair of 1964–1965, Sinclair again sponsored an exhibit, featuring life-size replicas of nine different dinosaurs.
Souvenirs from the exhibit included a brochure and molded plastic figurines of the dinosaurs featured, after the Fair closed, Dinoland spent a period of time as a traveling exhibit. Two of the replicas are still on display at Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose, another, a model of a Trachodon, has been displayed at Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago, Illinois. C
Speedway LLC
Speedway LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Marathon Petroleum Corporation and is the largest chain in central Ohio. Speedway started as Speedway 79, the name of a chain based in Michigan for much of the first half of the 20th century. In 1959, known as the Ohio Oil Company, purchased the chain, as self-service gasoline became legalized in many states, Marathon decided to use Speedway at higher-volume self-service stations with convenience stores. These stations were converted to the Speedway branding, stations acquired in the Cheker deal included former Enco stations that Cheker acquired after they were sold off by Exxon in 1977. In the process, Ashlands SuperAmerica and Marathons Speedway convenience store chains were merged to form Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, at this time, Marathon acquired the rights to the Solo, Save Mart, Save More, and Rich brands from Ashland, along with others. Many of these brands would be converted to the Speedway brand over time, when the merger was completed in 1998, the Speedway and SuperAmerica brands began to market together.
At this time the locations outside the Upper Midwest were converted to Speedway, Marathon sold SuperAmerica to Northern Tier Energy, a newly formed company backed by the private equity firms ACON Investments and TPG Capital, in February 2011. It is based in Woodbury, today Speedway and SuperAmerica are unrelated chains. Following the separation of Marathons upstream and downstream operations in 2011, in 2001, Speedways truck stop chain was merged into the Pilot Travel Centers brand after Marathon and Pilot Corporation entered into a partnership to form Pilot Travel Centers. Pilot has since bought out Marathons interest in Pilot Travel Centers, following its merger with Hess Corporations retail chain in 2014, six WilcoHess locations in Virginia were rebranded as Pilot locations and jointly operated between Pilot Flying J and Speedway. The locations will be operated by Pilot Flying J and the Speedway locations will be rebranded as either Pilot or Flying J, as of late 2016, all former Hess and WilcoHess locations had converted to the Speedway brand.
On February 13,2012, it was announced that a deal had been reached with Indiana, as part of the purchase agreement, Speedway will acquire all trademarks, trade dress and intellectual property from GasAmerica. The deal includes several parcels of undeveloped real estate for future development, the transaction was finalized on May 29,2012, for an unspecified price. On June 5,2012, it was reported that Speedway, the deal gave Speedway nine Road Ranger stores in Kentucky, and one in Ohio, in exchange for cash and a truck stop in the Chicago metropolitan area. Rockford, IL-based Road Ranger operates approximately 80 truck stop and gasoline convenience store locations in seven Midwestern states, like Speedway before it, Road Ranger has a partnership with Pilot Flying J. In 2012, Speedway announced a planned expansion into Pennsylvania. While expansion into Tennessee has focused on the Grand Division of Middle Tennessee, it confirmed a expansion into Western Pennsylvania. ExxonMobil would subsequently offset its Pittsburgh losses by taking over several Shell-branded stations in the area, some Sunoco gas stations were converted into speedway In May 2014, Speedway announced they would purchase Hess Corporations retail business for $2.6 billion
Marathon Petroleum
Marathon Petroleum Corporation is an American petroleum refining and transportation company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. It was elected the best employer of United States in 2016 by Forbes, the company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil until a corporate spin-off in 2011. NYSE, MPLX Marathon Petroleum Corporation was formed on November 9,2005 as a subsidiary of Marathon Oil, Marathon Oil, the companys former parent, dates back to 1887 when several small oil companies in Ohio banded together to form The Ohio Oil Company. From 1982 until 2002, Marathon Oil was a subsidiary of U. S. Steel, in 2005, the company became a 100% owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil. In 2006, Marathon began using STP-branded additives in its gasoline, in 2009, the company completed a $3.9 billion expansion of its refinery in Garyville, Louisiana that increased the plant’s capacity by 180,000 barrels per day. On June 30,2011, Marathon Oil distributed all of its shares in the company to its shareholders via a corporate spin-off.
In June 2012, West Virginia-based Tri-State Petroleum signed a contract to switch 50 stations in Ohio, most of Tri-States stations before the deal were ExxonMobil-branded stations, the majority Exxon as well as a few scattered Mobil stations in the immediate Wheeling area. Included in the deal were 18 Exxon stations in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, significantly boosting Marathons presence in the Pittsburgh market, where former parent company U. S. Steel is based. Before the deal, Marathon had a smaller presence in Western Pennsylvania, while having a somewhat larger presence in West Virginia. In 2014, Speedway LLC, a subsidiary of the company, in 2016, a fire at the Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City, Texas injured three contract workers, resulting in a lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages
Houston
Houston is the most populous city in the state of Texas and the fourth-most populous city in the United States. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 2.239 million within an area of 667 square miles, it is the largest city in the southern United States and the seat of Harris County. Located in Southeast Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, it is the city of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land. Houston was founded on August 28,1836, near the banks of Buffalo Bayou and incorporated as a city on June 5,1837. The city was named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had commanded, the burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the citys population. Houstons economy has an industrial base in energy, aeronautics. Leading in health care sectors and building equipment, Houston has more Fortune 500 headquarters within its city limits than any city except for New York City. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled, the city has a population from various ethnic and religious backgrounds and a large and growing international community.
Houston is the most diverse city in Texas and has described as the most diverse in the United States. It is home to cultural institutions and exhibits, which attract more than 7 million visitors a year to the Museum District. Houston has a visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District. In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneurs from New York, Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, purchased 6,642 acres of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city. The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the general at the Battle of San Jacinto. The great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the slave states. Sizable numbers, came through the slave trade. New Orleans was the center of trade in the Deep South. Thousands of enslaved African Americans lived near the city before the Civil War, many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. Houston was granted incorporation on June 5,1837, with James S.
Holman becoming its first mayor, in the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County and the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas
LyondellBasell
It was formed in December 2007 by the acquisition of Lyondell Chemical Company by Basell Polyolefins for $12.7 billion. LyondellBasell was listed on the New York Stock Exchange on October 14,2010, Lyondell was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after the acquisition. LyondellBasells United States operations filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2009, on March 3,2015 LyondellBasell filed an unfair labor charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the United Steelworkers as a national refinery strike stretched into its fifth week. The company alleged union members have threatened employees returning to work at facilities affected by the strike and have been using abusive language on social media sites, as of 2013, Lyondell Chemical Company was the third largest independent chemical manufacturer in the United States. Lyondell purchased the shares from each of its partners to gain total control of Equistar which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lyondell. In 2004, Lyondell purchased Millennium Chemicals in a deal at $2.3 billion.
In August,2006, Lyondell acquired Citgos interest in the Lyondell-Citgo Refinery for $2.1 billion, Lyondell operates on five continents employing over 11,000 people. It is the leader in propylene oxide production and the largest North American supplier of styrene monomer. Other products include ethylene, ETBE, and polypropylene, Chemical maker Basell Polyolefins purchased Lyondell in December 2007, creating the new company LyondellBasell Industries AF S. C. A. It was owned by Access Industries, a privately held, U. S. -based industrial group, LyondellBasell is the third largest independent chemical manufacturer in the world and is headquartered in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Sales in 2008 were $50.7 billion, the company has 60 manufacturing sites in 19 countries and 15,000 employees. In November 2009, Reliance Industries bid $12 billion for LBI, in February 2010, Reliance raised its offer to $14.5 billion. Faced with debt estimated at $26 billion and unable to reschedule payments to its creditor banks, the debt was nearly 13 times the companys operating earnings.
Though the company emerged from bankruptcy in 2010, the Lyondell buyout remains a source of controversy, as of April 2013, motions to dismiss that lawsuit remain pending despite having been filed more than 18 months prior. In January 2011, LyondellBasell mothballed its Berre, refinery, the closure dented profit at the companys refining and oxyfuels unit, which makes gasoline and other products. Apollo Global Management LLC owns nearly one-third of LyondellBasell, the private equity firm invested $1.5 billion in the company when it restructured in 2010. Chief Executive Officer, Bhavesh V. Ltd
Chicago
Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, film, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language.
The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S.
The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
Philadelphia
In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States.
The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy.
In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
Teapot Dome scandal
The Teapot Dome Scandal was a bribery incident that took place in the United States from 1921 to 1922, during the administration of President Warren G. Harding. In 1922 and 1923, the became the subject of a sensational investigation by Senator Thomas J. Walsh. Fall was convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies, no person was ever convicted of paying the bribes, however. Before the Watergate scandal, Teapot Dome was regarded as the greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politics, in the early 20th century, the U. S. Navy largely converted from coal to fuel oil. To ensure that the Navy would always have enough fuel available and this was not implemented until 1922, when Interior Secretary Fall persuaded Navy Secretary Edwin C. Later in 1922, Interior Secretary Albert Fall leased the oil production rights at Teapot Dome to Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil and he leased the Elk Hills reserve to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company. Both leases were issued without competitive bidding and this manner of leasing was legal under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920.
The lease terms were very favorable to the oil companies, which secretly made Fall a rich man, Fall had received a no-interest loan from Doheny of $100,000 in November 1921. He received other gifts from Doheny and Sinclair totaling about $404,000 and it was this money changing hands that was illegal, not the leases. Fall attempted to keep his actions secret, but the improvement in his standard of living was suspect. In April 1922, a Wyoming oil operator wrote to Senator John B, angered that Sinclair had been given a contract to the lands in a secret deal. Kendrick did not respond, but two on April 15, he introduced a resolution calling for an investigation of the deal. La Follette, Sr. of Wisconsin led an investigation by the Senate Committee on Public Lands, at first, La Follette believed Fall was innocent. However, his suspicions deepened after his own office in the Senate Office Building was ransacked, democrat Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, the most junior minority member, led a lengthy inquiry.
For two years, Walsh pushed forward while Fall stepped backward, covering his tracks as he went, no evidence of wrongdoing was initially uncovered as the leases were legal enough, but records kept disappearing mysteriously. Fall had made the leases appear legitimate, but his acceptance of the money was his undoing, by 1924, the remaining unanswered question was how Fall had become so rich so quickly and easily. Money from the bribes had gone to Falls cattle ranch and investments in his business, finally, as the investigation was winding down with Fall apparently innocent, Walsh uncovered a piece of evidence Fall had forgotten to cover up, Dohenys $100,000 loan to Fall. This discovery broke the scandal open and criminal suits related to the scandal continued throughout the 1920s
BP
BP P. L. C. referred to by its former name, British Petroleum, is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It has renewable energy interests in biofuels and wind power, the company has around 17,200 service stations worldwide. Its largest division is BP America in the United States, in Russia BP owns a 19. 75% stake in Rosneft, the worlds largest publicly traded oil and gas company by hydrocarbon reserves and production. BP has a listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index. It has secondary listings on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, BPs origins date back to the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1908, established as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company to exploit oil discoveries in Iran. In 1935, it became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and in 1954 British Petroleum, in 1959, the company expanded beyond the Middle East to Alaska and it was one of the the first companies to strike oil in the North Sea.
British Petroleum acquired majority control of Standard Oil of Ohio in 1978, formerly majority state-owned, the British government privatised the company in stages between 1979 and 1987. British Petroleum merged with Amoco in 1998, becoming BP Amoco plc, from 2003 to 2013, BP was a partner in the TNK-BP joint venture in Russia. BP has been involved in several major environmental and safety incidents. 1.8 million gallons of Corexit oil dispersant were used in the cleanup response, legal proceedings continued into January 2015 which determined payouts and fines under the Clean Water Act and the Natural Resources Damage Assessment. BP appealed the ruling, which raised concerns about BPs future and they settled in July 2015 in the amount of $19 billion plus the original amount. In May 1908 a group of British geologists discovered a large amount of oil at Masjid-i-Suleiman in Mohammerah and it was the first commercially significant find of oil in the Middle East. William Knox DArcy, by contract with the Emir of Mohammerah, Sheikh Khazal Khan al-Kaabi and this event changed the history of the Middle East.
The oil discovery led to petrochemical industry development and the establishment of industries that depended on oil. On 14 April 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was incorporated as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company, some of the shares were sold to the public. The first chairman and minority shareholder of the company became Lord Strathcona, the refinery was built and began operating in 1912. In 1913, the British Government acquired a controlling interest in the company and at the suggestion of Winston Churchill, the Royal Navy, which projected British power all over the world, came to be run 100% on oil from Iran. In 1919, the became a shale-oil producer by establishing a subsidiary named Scottish Oils which merged remaining Scottish oil-shale industries
Montana
Montana /mɒnˈtænə/ is a state in the Western region of the United States. The states name is derived from the Spanish word montaña, Montana has several nicknames, although none official, including Big Sky Country and The Treasure State, and slogans that include Land of the Shining Mountains and more recently The Last Best Place. Montana has a 545-mile border with three Canadian provinces, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, the state to do so. It borders North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, Montana is ranked 4th in size, but 44th in population and 48th in population density of the 50 United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges, smaller island ranges are found throughout the state. In total,77 named ranges are part of the Rocky Mountains, the eastern half of Montana is characterized by western prairie terrain and badlands. The economy is based on agriculture, including ranching and cereal grain farming. Other significant economic activities include oil, gas and hard rock mining, the health care and government sectors are significant to the states economy.
Millions of tourists annually visit Glacier National Park, the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the name Montana comes from the Spanish word Montaña and the Latin word Montana, meaning mountain, or more broadly, mountainous country. Montaña del Norte was the name given by early Spanish explorers to the mountainous region of the west. The name was changed by Representatives Henry Wilson and Benjamin F. Harding, when Ashley presented a bill to establish a temporary government in 1864 for a new territory to be carved out of Idaho, he again chose Montana Territory. This time Rep. Samuel Cox, of Ohio, objected to the name, Cox complained that the name was a misnomer given most of the territory was not mountainous and that a Native American name would be more appropriate than a Spanish one. Other names such as Shoshone were suggested, but it was decided that the Committee on Territories could name it whatever they wanted, with an area of 147,040 square miles, Montana is slightly larger than Japan.
It is the fourth largest state in the United States after Alaska and California, the largest landlocked U. S. state, and the worlds 56th largest national state/province subdivision. To the north, Montana shares a 545-mile border with three Canadian provinces, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, the state to do so. It borders North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, the states topography is roughly defined by the Continental Divide, which splits much of the state into distinct eastern and western regions. Most of Montanas 100 or more named mountain ranges are in the western half. The Absaroka and Beartooth ranges in the states south-central part are part of the Central Rocky Mountains
Standard Oil
Standard Oil Co. Inc. was an American oil producing, transporting and marketing company. Established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller as a corporation in Ohio and its controversial history as one of the worlds first and largest multinational corporations ended in 1911, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly. The Standard Oil trust streamlined production and logistics, lowered costs, trust-busting critics accused Standard Oil of using aggressive pricing to destroy competitors and form a monopoly that threatened other businesses. John D. Rockefeller was a founder and major shareholder and its successors such as ExxonMobil, BP, and Chevron are still counted among the companies with the largest income worldwide. By 1882, his top aide was John Dustin Archbold, after 1896, Rockefeller disengaged from business to concentrate on his philanthropy, leaving Archbold in control. Other notable Standard Oil principals include Henry Flagler, developer of the Florida East Coast Railway and resort cities, and Henry H.
Rogers, Standard Oils name came from the companys manufacturing standards, which preceded todays ASTM standards. In 1870 Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil in Ohio, of the initial 10,000 shares, John D. In the early years, John D. Rockefeller dominated the combine and he quickly distributed power and the tasks of policy formation to a system of committees, but always remained the largest shareholder. Authority was centralized in the main office in Cleveland. In response to state trying to limit the scale of companies and his associates developed innovative ways of organizing. On January 2,1882, they combined their disparate companies, spread across dozens of states and this organization proved so successful that other giant enterprises adopted this trust form. The company grew by increasing sales and through acquisitions, after purchasing competing firms, Rockefeller shut down those he believed to be inefficient and kept the others. Smaller companies decried such deals as unfair because they were not producing enough oil to qualify for discounts, in 1872, Rockefeller joined the South Improvement Co. which would have allowed him to receive rebates for shipping and receive drawbacks on oil his competitors shipped.
But when this became known, competitors convinced the Pennsylvania Legislature to revoke South Improvements charter. No oil was shipped under this arrangement. Standards actions and secret transport deals helped its kerosene price to drop from 58 to 26 cents from 1865 to 1870, competitors disliked the companys business practices, but consumers liked the lower prices. Standard Oil, being formed well before the discovery of the Spindletop oil field, the company was perceived to own and control all aspects of the trade. In 1885, Standard Oil of Ohio moved its headquarters from Cleveland to its permanent headquarters at 26 Broadway in New York City
