Dusty-white silos and radio towers line the landscape outside of Thurber, Texas. Once a bustling coal mining outcamp, ghost towns and a giant smokestack are all that remain.

A golden-yellow flame soars out from an oil pipeline, burning chemical waste into the dark gray fog. The drizzling rain hardly seems to make an impact.

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Marathon, Texas. Photo by Andrew Blanton.

Larry Hooper races a west-bound graffitied Union Pacific on Interstate 20, an iconic symbol of the frontier days that inspired generations of songwriters. The multi-colored locomotive fades into the rear view mirror, its aging-steel wheels and rickety boxcars creak off in the distance.

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