Tom Slick was a legend among the ""independents"" - those who hunted for oil the way mountain men hunted for furs. Ray Miles traces the growth of Slick's career and the modern petroleum industry, including the oil conservation movement, of which Slick was an early proponent. He examines the first generation of oilmen who sought fortunes in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas and looks at Slick's unique hands-on business style of brokering on street corners and eschewing stockholders and board members. In 1929, Slick sold his Oklahoma holdings in the Prairie Oil and Gas Company - the largest sale of oil properties by an individual to that date.