Jeannie Place was laid off in the mid-1980s as a result of a merger, and she and geologist husband, Blaze Cunningham, left the stressful world of big oil behind to operate a cave in her home state of Wisconsin.
"I went to work for Gulf Minerals after college and by 1980 had moved into the oil and gas division in Casper (Wyo.). That's where I met my husband and was re-introduced to caving -- a hobby of mine when I was growing up."
By 1984 the two "started to be concerned about the situation in the oil industry with all the mergers," Place said. "That same year Chevron acquired Gulf and we began in earnest to think about alternate plans for our future."
She had worked as a teenager and through graduate school at Crystal Cave in Spring Valley, Wis., so in 1984 she contacted the elderly owners who were interested in selling the business.
"It had always been one of my pipe dreams to go back home and own the cave," she said.
In June 1985 Place was laid off, but her husband was kept on. Even though Cunningham's job was secure for the moment, the couple got serious about their plan to buy the cave.
"We weren't sure what was going to happen with Blaze's job," she said. "We knew the Casper office would be closed, but we didn't know where he would be transferred."
In the meantime Place was busy taking classes in advertising and accounting with the idea that if things didn't work out with Chevron the couple would have this move to fall back on.
"By the end of 1985 we had pretty much decided we were going to make the move to Wisconsin. Blaze had started taking classes in electrical, plumbing and other maintenance-oriented areas, and we finalized an agreement with the owners in June 1986. When Blaze was notified two months later of his transfer to Oklahoma City we were able to make the break.
"By facing the situation realistically we were able to control our own destiny -- something many people don't do in a layoff," she said. "Of course, there was a great deal of trepidation that went along with our decision. We had trained for this profession for years. My husband grew up in the oil business in San Antonio.
"But a merger is extremely stressful. It plays out for so long -- in our case almost three years -- and there is this constant nagging in the back of your mind: 'Am I going to have a job tomorrow?'
"We knew we had to do something, and we were looking for stability outside the oil industry after going through that difficult, stressful experience.
"With the economic situation in the mid-1980s we knew that once we made the break our chances of getting back into the petroleum industry were slim," she continued. "We were making a real cut off from the business. At the same time buying the cave was a sink or swim situation. We were throwing everything we had into it -- our life savings.
"Looking back, I realize there was a great deal of naivete and ignorance in the whole plan, but that was probably a good thing. If we knew then what we know now I'm sure I would never have been able to convince Blaze to make the move."
Crystal Cave, which is 45 miles east of St. Paul, Minn., had been in operation since 1942 and Place didn't worry about the business failing -- she and Cunningham worried about getting the business growing again.
"The previous owners were quite elderly and hadn't made any changes or improvements in years. I had to laugh when during negotiations the wife said we should try FM radio for advertising because a lot of the new cars have that kind of radio nowadays," she remembered. "We were talking about moving a business from the late 1940s into the 1990s. We knew we were in for a lot of work."
The couple didn't realize just how much work.
"We put together a six-month plan, a one-year plan, and a five-year plan. That went out the window the first month. We are now in our 13th season and I would say we have now completed our first-year business plan," she laughed. "We didn't deal with brush fires. Ours were forest fires."
The first years were difficult. During the off seasons either Place or Cunningham got a job to see them through financially.
Today, however, Crystal Cave is thriving, and Place said she and her family love their new life. The couple, with the help of the Minnesota Speleological Survey, has almost tripled the length of the cave -- and a year ago they were able to break through to the outside and form a second entrance.
Crystal Cave is one to one and a half million years old and is a maze cave. Today the cave is about 70 feet deep and over 4,000 feet long -- quite large for a Wisconsin cave. The public sees about 1,300 feet of the cave.
Place and Cunningham have focused their efforts on developing the cave as an educational facility.
"We are educating about 35,000 people a year on the geologic processes that form this type of cave," she said. "We have been able to draw on our love for the science of geology in this new career. Our focus is children from kindergarten through sixth grade.
"From April through the first of June, and again in September and October, we have anywhere from two to five school groups a day tour the cave," she said.
The career move has additional benefits.
"Our son, who is eight, is growing up close to an extended family in a very tranquil setting. We made the choice to leave the rat race, and today we can sit on our front porch and watch the wildlife," she said. "Our commute is a 100 yards.
"I suppose the one thing I would say to people facing the same kind of turmoil we faced in the mid-1980s is don't bury your head in the sand -- face what could happen. We just decided we weren't going to wait for the company to determine our fates. If this had turned out to be just a contingency plan, fine, but if the worse happened we had a plan. In the end the worse did happen.
"I'm certain Blaze could have stayed on with Chevron, but major oil companies do transfer people a good deal, and I had to look at whether I wanted to spend my life packing and unpacking.
"I didn't want to do that. I was looking for some stability in our lives."