Boom Town: What Brings Thousands of Jobs to Steubenville, OH?

[Stephane Dumas]

I spotted this article via the Skyscraperpage forum http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=194678
http://abcnews.go.com/US/boom-town-ohio-town-sees-thousands-jobs/story?id=14761821

Steubenville, Ohio, may not look like a city sitting on a multi-billion dollar industry. Unemployment here reached 15 percent in 2010, and a now-shuttered steel mill -- which was once the lifeline of the Steubenville economy -- is now just a painful reminder of what used to be.

While the old way is gone for good -- a new way has already changed lives.

Two huge shale formations -- the Marcellus and Utica -- lay underneath a five-state region. Steubenville sits right on the epicenter of the Marcellus formation, ready to absorb all the new positions needed to open new and repurposed old wells.

While the formations have been around for centuries, only in the past 10 years have people realized how deep they run. In the past decade the area has been prepped for drilling, which is expected to begin in Steubenville this spring.

With the new influx of job opportunities, many are relocating to Steubenville, hoping to land a well-paying, stable job. Louis McGowan, a Navy veteran who served in the war in Afghanistan, was born in the area but left for Texas in search of work. The new jobs boom allowed him to do something he never believed he'd be able to do, come home. He hopes to be one of the first in line when drilling begins.

In a matter of months, rigs will begin to dot the landscape, and current and former residents -- like McGowan -- hope the money will line their pockets.