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'''Exxon''' and ] are the two heritage petrochemical companies that merged in 1999 to form the ]
] ])]]
'''Stapleton International Airport''' was ], ]'s primary ] from 1929 to 1995. At different times it served as a hub for ], ], ] and ] as well as a hub for ] and ] when the airport was closed. In 1995, Stapleton was replaced by ]. It has now been decommissioned, and redeveloped as a neighborhood.
]


==History== ==History==
]
Stapleton was opened on ], ] as '''Denver Municipal Airport''', which was later renamed to '''Stapleton Airfield''' after expansion in 1944. The renaming was in honor of ], the city's ] most of the time from 1923 to 1947, and the major force behind the project when it began in 1928.
]
''Exxon'' formally replaced the '']'', ''Enco'', and ''Humble'' brands on ], ], in the ]. The name ''Esso'', pronounced ''S''-''O'', attracted protests from other ] spinoffs because of its similarity to the name of the parent company, ''Standard Oil''. Hence, the company was restricted from using ''Esso'' in the USA except in those states awarded to it in the ]. In states where the Esso brand was blackballed, the company marketed its gasoline under the Humble or Enco brands. The Humble brand was used at Texas stations for decades as those operations were under the direction of Jersey Standard affiliate, ], and in the mid-to-late 1950s expanded to other Southwestern states including ], ] and ].


In 1960, Jersey Standard gained full control of Humble Oil and Refining Co. and, through a reorganization of the company, restructured Humble into Jersey's domestic marketing and refining division to sell and market gasoline nationwide under the Esso, Enco and Humble brands. The Enco brand was introduced by Humble in 1960 at stations in ] but was soon blackballed after Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) protested that Enco (Humble's acronym for "ENergy COmpany) sounded and looked too much like Esso as it shared the same oval logo with blue border and red letters with the two middle letters the only difference. At that point, the stations in Ohio would be rebranded Humble until the name change to Exxon in 1972.
===Air disasters===
Several major air ]es involved Stapleton as the origin airport, while only one major air disaster occurred there.


After the Enco brand was discontinued in Ohio, it was moved to other non-Esso states. In 1961, Humble stations in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona were rebranded as Enco and the Enco brand appeared on gasoline and lubricant products at Humble stations in Texas that same year with service stations there changed to Enco in 1962. By that time, Jersey had expanded the Enco brand to stations in the Midwest and Northwest that had been operated by various subsidaries such as Carter, Pate and Oklahoma among others.
*On ], ], ] exploded over nearby ] while en route to ] from Stapleton, killing all 44 persons on board. A man named ] was found to have planted a ] bomb in a suitcase that was loaded onto the plane in order to murder his mother and collect insurance money. He was executed two years after Flight 629 exploded.
* On ], ], ] crashed due to windshear after taking off and climbing to 100 feet on runway 35L. Fortunately, nobody was killed in the accident.
*On ], ], ], which took off from Stapleton, made a forced landing near Portland, Oregon. Ten people died while 179 survived.
*On ], ], when ], a ]-14 jetliner, crashed on takeoff during a snowstorm. The probable cause of the crash was the failure of the flight crew to have the aircraft de-iced prior to take-off and the over-rotation of the aircraft on take-off. Twenty-eight persons were killed, while 54 survived. It was the only fatal crash at Stapleton.
*On ], ], ], a ], crash-landed at the ] airport on a flight which originated at Stapleton. Flight 232 experienced a catastrophic engine failure over ] on a flight to ]. One hundred and eleven people died in the crash, while 185 survived.


In 1963, Humble was approached by Tidewater Oil Company, a major gasoline marketer along the eastern and western seaboards, to purchase the firm's refining and marketing operations on the west coast, a move that would have given Humble a large number of existing stations and a refinery in California, which was then the fastest-growing gasoline market. However, the ] objected to Humble's plan to purchase Tidewater's west coast operations, which were later sold to ] in 1966. Meanwhile, Humble gradually built up new and rebranded service stations in California and other western states under the Enco brand and purchased a large number of stations from Signal Oil Company in 1967, followed by the opening of a new refinery ] in 1969.
===Jet age===
The facility received a new jet runway and terminal building in the 1960s. After deregulation, three different airlines operated large hubs out of Stapleton (], ], and ]), leading to large levels of congestion. In order to combat the congestion, a new runway was added (36/18) in the 1980s and the terminal was again expanded. At the time of its closure in 1995, Stapleton sported six runways (2 sets of 3 parallel runways) and five terminal concourses.


In 1966, the Justice Department ordered Humble to "]" from using the Esso brand at stations in several Southeastern states following protests from Standard Oil of Kentucky (a ] subsidiary by that time and in the process of rebranding the Kyso stations as ]). By 1967, stations in each of those states were rebranded as ].
==Decommissioning==
By the 1980s, plans were underway to replace Stapleton with a new airport. Stapleton was plagued with a number of problems, including:
*inadequate separation between runways, leading to extremely long waits in bad weather
*a ] over ], brought by residents of nearby Park Hill community
*legal threats by ] to block runway extension into ] lands.
While there was ample evidence to support the argument that Stapleton was truly plagued by these problems, some people continue to maintain that the construction of ] was nothing more than expensive politics.


]
The Colorado General Assembly brokered a deal in 1985 to annex a plot of land in Adams County into the city of Denver, and use that land to build a new airport. Adams County voters approved the plan in 1988, and Denver voters approved the plan in a referendum in 1989.
]
Despite the success of the "Put A Tiger In Your Tank" advertising campaign introduced by Humble in 1964 to promote its Enco/Esso Extra gasolines, the similar logotypes, use of the Humble name in all Esso/Enco ads and the uniformity in design and products of Humble stations nationwide, the company still had difficulties promoting itself as a nationwide gasoline marketer competing against truly national brands such as ] - then a 50-state marketer and the only company selling products under one brand name in each state. Humble officials realized by the late 1960s that the time had come to swallow its pride by developing a new brand name that could be used nationwide throughout the U.S. At first, consideration was given to simply rebranding all stations as "Enco" but that was shelved when it was learned that "Enco" is a [[Japanese language|
Japanese]] abbreviation of "engine failure." (エンジン故障, ''enjinkoshou'')


In order to create a unified brand, the company changed its corporate name from ''Jersey Standard'' to ''Exxon'', rebranding all its U.S. stations under the latter title in the summer and fall of 1972 following the successful test marketing of the Exxon brand and logo in late 1971 and early 1972 at rebranded Enco/Esso stations in certain U.S. cities. However, the unrestricted international use of the popular brand ''Esso'' prompted the company to continue using ''Esso'' outside of the USA. ''Esso'' is the only widely used Standard Oil brand left in existence. Other Standard Oil descendants, such as ] and ], do however maintain a few stations with the ''Standard Oil'' brand in specific states in order to retain their trademarks and prevent others from using them.
On ], ], the last commercial flight left Stapleton, which was replaced by the new Denver International Airport. Stapleton was closed later that evening, and a massive ] of all airport vehicles (everything from baggage carts to rental cars) headed for DIA, which opened the following morning. White "X"es were placed across all Stapleton ]s to keep ] from landing at the now-closed airport. DIA dropped DVX and KDVX as its temporary ]s, adopting Stapleton's DEN and KDEN. Visitors to or from Denver at that time had the unusual experience of arriving at a different airport than they left the same city from.


The rectangular ''Exxon'' logo with the blue strip at the bottom and red lettering with the two "X's" interlinked together was designed by noted industrial stylist ]. The interlinked "X's" are incorporated in the modern-day ExxonMobil corporate logo, but the original Exxon sign continues for marketing efforts and station signage.
All of Stapleton's airport infrastructure has been removed except for the control tower, which will remain standing as a reminder of the site's former days. The parking structure also remains standing.

==Redevelopment==
]
While Denver International was being constructed, planners began to decide how the Stapleton site would be redeveloped. A private group of Denver civic leaders, the Stapleton Development Foundation, convened in 1990 and produced a master plan for the site in 1995, emphasizing a pedestrian-oriented design rather than the automobile-oriented designs found in many other planned developments. Nearly a third of the airport site was slated for redevelopment as public park space.

The former airport site is now being redeveloped as the largest ] project in the ]. Construction began in 2001, and ], over a thousand homes have been built on the Stapleton site. The new ] is ] for residential and commercial development, including office parks and "big box" shopping centers. Stapleton is by far the largest neighborhood in the city of Denver, and an eastern portion of the redevelopment site lies in the neighboring city of ]. Eventually, Stapleton will be home to at least 30,000 residents.


==External links== ==External links==
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Revision as of 16:05, 16 July 2006

Exxon and Mobil are the two heritage petrochemical companies that merged in 1999 to form the Exxon Mobil Corporation

History

Exxon logo
Exxon logo
Exxon-branded gas station in California (actually operated by Valero)

Exxon formally replaced the Esso, Enco, and Humble brands on January 1, 1973, in the USA. The name Esso, pronounced S-O, attracted protests from other Standard Oil spinoffs because of its similarity to the name of the parent company, Standard Oil. Hence, the company was restricted from using Esso in the USA except in those states awarded to it in the 1911 Standard Oil antitrust settlement. In states where the Esso brand was blackballed, the company marketed its gasoline under the Humble or Enco brands. The Humble brand was used at Texas stations for decades as those operations were under the direction of Jersey Standard affiliate, Humble Oil, and in the mid-to-late 1950s expanded to other Southwestern states including New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma.

In 1960, Jersey Standard gained full control of Humble Oil and Refining Co. and, through a reorganization of the company, restructured Humble into Jersey's domestic marketing and refining division to sell and market gasoline nationwide under the Esso, Enco and Humble brands. The Enco brand was introduced by Humble in 1960 at stations in Ohio but was soon blackballed after Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) protested that Enco (Humble's acronym for "ENergy COmpany) sounded and looked too much like Esso as it shared the same oval logo with blue border and red letters with the two middle letters the only difference. At that point, the stations in Ohio would be rebranded Humble until the name change to Exxon in 1972.

After the Enco brand was discontinued in Ohio, it was moved to other non-Esso states. In 1961, Humble stations in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona were rebranded as Enco and the Enco brand appeared on gasoline and lubricant products at Humble stations in Texas that same year with service stations there changed to Enco in 1962. By that time, Jersey had expanded the Enco brand to stations in the Midwest and Northwest that had been operated by various subsidaries such as Carter, Pate and Oklahoma among others.

In 1963, Humble was approached by Tidewater Oil Company, a major gasoline marketer along the eastern and western seaboards, to purchase the firm's refining and marketing operations on the west coast, a move that would have given Humble a large number of existing stations and a refinery in California, which was then the fastest-growing gasoline market. However, the Justice Department objected to Humble's plan to purchase Tidewater's west coast operations, which were later sold to Phillips Petroleum in 1966. Meanwhile, Humble gradually built up new and rebranded service stations in California and other western states under the Enco brand and purchased a large number of stations from Signal Oil Company in 1967, followed by the opening of a new refinery Benicia, California in 1969.

In 1966, the Justice Department ordered Humble to "cease and desist" from using the Esso brand at stations in several Southeastern states following protests from Standard Oil of Kentucky (a Standard Oil of California subsidiary by that time and in the process of rebranding the Kyso stations as Chevron). By 1967, stations in each of those states were rebranded as Enco.

Exxon gas pumps in Framingham, MA.
Lit Exxon sign logo

Despite the success of the "Put A Tiger In Your Tank" advertising campaign introduced by Humble in 1964 to promote its Enco/Esso Extra gasolines, the similar logotypes, use of the Humble name in all Esso/Enco ads and the uniformity in design and products of Humble stations nationwide, the company still had difficulties promoting itself as a nationwide gasoline marketer competing against truly national brands such as Texaco - then a 50-state marketer and the only company selling products under one brand name in each state. Humble officials realized by the late 1960s that the time had come to swallow its pride by developing a new brand name that could be used nationwide throughout the U.S. At first, consideration was given to simply rebranding all stations as "Enco" but that was shelved when it was learned that "Enco" is a Japanese abbreviation of "engine failure." (エンジン故障, enjinkoshou)

In order to create a unified brand, the company changed its corporate name from Jersey Standard to Exxon, rebranding all its U.S. stations under the latter title in the summer and fall of 1972 following the successful test marketing of the Exxon brand and logo in late 1971 and early 1972 at rebranded Enco/Esso stations in certain U.S. cities. However, the unrestricted international use of the popular brand Esso prompted the company to continue using Esso outside of the USA. Esso is the only widely used Standard Oil brand left in existence. Other Standard Oil descendants, such as BP and Chevron, do however maintain a few stations with the Standard Oil brand in specific states in order to retain their trademarks and prevent others from using them.

The rectangular Exxon logo with the blue strip at the bottom and red lettering with the two "X's" interlinked together was designed by noted industrial stylist Raymond Loewy. The interlinked "X's" are incorporated in the modern-day ExxonMobil corporate logo, but the original Exxon sign continues for marketing efforts and station signage.

External links

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