On May 2, 1982, Exxon announced that it was pulling out of its 60% share in the Colony Shale Oil Project near Parachute, Colorado due to the rapidly declining price of oil and the high expenses of producing synthetic oil from shale. The effects on the local economy were immediate and devastating, causing businesses to fold, real estate values to plummet, and leading to layoffs of 2,200 Exxon workers. In the years between 1983 and 1985, nearly 24,000 people left Garfield and Mesa County in exodus as $85 million in annual payroll disappeared from the Western Slope. Several oil companies, including Chevron, Occidental, and Shell remained on the Western Slope and continued research and development on oil shale, though they never reached commercial viability on any of their projects.
