I found this plaque embedded in the bricks outside the Oil & Gas Building, on the corner of Common and Rampart in the CBD. It reads "One hundred years after Col. Drake [?] completed the nation's first successful oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the New Orleans Oil Centennial Committee deposited historical documents here to commemorate the occasion."
A celebration of oil's first century, eh? Hope they enjoyed the party, 'cos according to some geologists, we are approaching the end of the "peak oil" era. Some estimate that global oil supplies will begin to decline in mid-century, and that by 2050 the decline in production rates -- from having used up this limited resource -- will be precipitous.
In a hundred years, if that plaque is still there, it might seem like more of a tombstone than a time-capsule.
[Apologies for the off-set photo cropping ... it couldn't be avoided.]
