Changes

Then came the disastrous decision by the [[United States]] government to promulgate a series of new laws and "directives" that effectively destroyed the boom that had begun in [[Colorado]] after the John Galt Line had opened. John Galt was on the scene, of course, and recruited several Colorado businessmen to join his strike, and to come to the valley where they could build new lives for themselves right away. The most spectacular defection was that of [[Ellis Wyatt]], who had devised a method for extracting [[oil]] from [[shale]]. Wyatt set fire to his entire shale field and left a sign on his property explaining his actions:{{cquote|I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours.}}

Then came the disastrous decision by the [[United States]] government to promulgate a series of new laws and "directives" that effectively destroyed the boom that had begun in [[Colorado]] after the John Galt Line had opened. John Galt was on the scene, of course, and recruited several Colorado businessmen to join his strike, and to come to the valley where they could build new lives for themselves right away. The most spectacular defection was that of [[Ellis Wyatt]], who had devised a method for extracting [[oil]] from [[shale]]. Wyatt set fire to his entire shale field and left a sign on his property explaining his actions:{{cquote|I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours.}}

Ellis Wyatt and the others, quite simply, had to hide. So for them, living on unskilled-laborer's wages outside the valley was out of the question. Wyatt took the lead by converting whatever part of his wealth that he could keep safe into gold or machines, and bringing it to the valley. With abundant start-up capital and natural resources ready for the taking, Wyatt and the others started to exploit the valley in earnest. In so doing, they created permanent jobs for most of the strikers. McNamara laid water mains and electric and telephone lines

Ellis Wyatt and the others, quite simply, had to hide. So for them, living on unskilled-laborer's wages outside the valley was out of the question. Wyatt took the lead by converting whatever part of his wealth that he could keep safe into gold or machines, and bringing it to the valley. With abundant start-up capital and natural resources ready for the taking, Wyatt and the others started to exploit the valley in earnest. In so doing, they created permanent jobs for most of the strikers. McNamara had to hire three assistants to service a tremendously accelerated demand for utility services.

The community now known as Galt's Gulch began to thrive. More and more strikers left off their outside lives and went to work for the most recent defectors. In the last years of the strike, the valley gained an oil field, a foundry, an airstrip, and an [[automobile]] factory, all its own. Toward the end of the strike, the valley became almost self-supporting; Mulligan maintained a channel to the outside to acquire the few goods that the valley residents could not produce for themselves. Whether the government could ever have compromised that channel would never be known, because the outside society collapsed before anyone in the government ever knew or suspected that Galt's Gulch existed.

The community now known as Galt's Gulch began to thrive. More and more strikers left off their outside lives and went to work for the most recent defectors. In the last years of the strike, the valley gained an oil field, a foundry, an airstrip, and an [[automobile]] factory, all its own. Toward the end of the strike, the valley became almost self-supporting; Mulligan maintained a channel to the outside to acquire the few goods that the valley residents could not produce for themselves. Whether the government could ever have compromised that channel would never be known, because the outside society collapsed before anyone in the government ever knew or suspected that Galt's Gulch existed.