Prince Dusty: A Story of the Oil Regions
An orphan boy in the oil-rich hills of 1870s Pennsylvania, nicknamed "Prince Dusty" by the roughnecks who see something noble in him despite his circumstances. Arthur Dale Dustin has been sent to live with relatives who treat him as a burden, a Cinderella in suspenders. His only friends are a kind girl cousin, a fearless oil-well driller named Brace Barlow, and Uncle Phin, a former slave whose quiet strength becomes the boy's anchor. When a mysterious stranger gives him a book of fairy tales, Arthur discovers that stories can be maps. He and Uncle Phin set out across post-Civil War America toward Virginia, toward a grandfather he's never met. The road is full of tramps, hard-boiled railroad men, and danger that doesn't care that you're twelve. When they finally reach Grandfather Dale, the old man faces ruin. Arthur has one thing of value: a piece of Pennsylvania land left by his father. Together, boy, grandfather, and driller will drill for oil, gambling everything on a black gold that could save a family or leave them with nothing. A boy's adventure about making your own family when blood fails you, and a vivid slice of a fascinating moment in American history when oil was still a wild, desperate dream.
