Oil Bust Claims Unusual American Victim Far From Shale Fields

Sand piles sit at the Superior Silica Sands LLC facility in Barron, Wisconsin, U.S., on Thursday Sept. 10, 2015. A little-known offshoot of the shale oil revolution that swept across America over the past decade is the market for sand -- the grit that props open the rocks and makes fracking possible -- transforming almost overnight what had been a sleepy industry that sold primarily to the likes of glass makers and golf courses. So when the shale boom went bust, it took down the sand industry with it. Some mines in the Midwest region have cut their workforce and output in half and many smaller operations have closed entirely. Photographer: Rachel Woolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images