Oil Bust Claims Unusual American Victim Far From Shale Fields

Winter storage sand sits in a pile at the Hi-Crush Proppants LLC facility in Whitehall, 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