Traveling to Casper, Wyoming on business in the oil industry will never be the same.
In the years when I first started practicing law, my boss and mentor would often take me to the Casper Petroleum Club for dinner. He told me that it was the place where oil and gas deals have been made since the 1950s. He would recount stories from when he was a young lawyer of how boisterous oilmen would come in and talk shop over a drink and a steak. He told me about how the Petroleum Club was once an oasis in Casper. We would often discuss specifics of our oil and gas cases there, and it was always a treat for me to break bread with someone I hold in such high regard in such a fancy and historical place in Wyoming.
I remember feeling a little out of place the first time I dined there – as a young girl from Rock Springs who had recently graduated law school, I wondered what business I had eating at a Petroleum Club. In fact, I remember looking around the room and seeing that I was the youngest person there and that I was the only woman other than the waitresses. That feeling of being out of place all changed quickly – the other patrons and wait staff welcomed me to dine at the Petroleum Club with open arms.
Although I only dined there a handful times, was just heartbroken to hear that the Casper Petroleum Club will be the next casualty of the energy downturn. The Casper Star Tribune reported today that the once illustrious club in the " The Oil City" has announced that it will close its doors on Saturday, after serving members of the energy industry for 67 years. It had planned to try to make it the rest of the year, but it was not economic.
It is truly the end of an era.
The Casper Star Tribune reported "The Petroleum Club began as an elite center for industry leaders, where deals were made over dinner and cocktails. It survived a number of economic busts over the years and bought its current facility in the mid-1980s, when oil had sunk to $10 a barrel."
It is too bad that the club will not survive this downturn too.
It really is the case that "a piece of Casper's history and identity as an oil town will disappear with it" – the Casper Star Tribune's article entitled " With Petroleum Club closing, a piece of Casper's history is closing, too" hits the nail on the head.
The article went on to succinctly state that "When the club closes its doors, it will close an era where business was conducted around the dinner table."
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