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Men stand on top of George Washington's head at Mount Rushmore during construction. Construction equipment is seen on top of Washington's and Thomas Jefferson's heads.

A donkey and several men work along the tracks at a strip mine run by the New Enterprise Coal Company in the Illinois-Iowa area.

A small building houses a battery of gas fired boilers at an oil pumping station in Bridgeport, Illinois.

Oil-funded prosperity in Bridgeport, Illinois, provided funding in the late 1800s for the construction of a new Bridgeport High School building.

One of three new bank buildings erected in Bridgeport during the late 1800s due to the city's success in the oil industry.

Several operational oil drilling rigs sit in a large field.

Snow covers oil wells in Bridgeport, Illinois.

Several towers and other buildings line the outskirts of a growing corn field.

A small group of men stand next to an oil derrick.

Two standard oil rigs stand among trees and fields.

A pump in a wooded area runs from a power house.

An oil derrick and several small buildings stand in an oil field.

Open space surrounds the western portion of the Sandoval oil field in Marion County.

Drilling rigs drill to 1550 feet at the Sandoval oil field in Marion County.

Several oil rigs stand in the eastern portion of the Sandoval oil field in Marion County, Illinois.

An oil well functions in a rural area among houses and trees.

Robinson, Illinois, residents built several new buildings and brick-paved roads during the time of prosperity that accompanied the oil boom.

An oil well sits in the front yard of a farmhouse in Robinson, Crawford County, Illinois.

An oil well operates in the middle of a large field with several other oil wells in the distance.

A small oil well operates in the lawn of a farmhouse.

Drilling rigs and towers dot the skyline near an oil field adjacent to a crop field.

A man transports supplies by horse-drawn cart through an oil field.

Snow-covered houses surround operational oil wells.

Several derricks stand near a long unidentified building in an oil field.

The Casey, Illinois, oil refinery, established in 1904, was the first oil refinery in the state.