North Dakota Boom Town a Shining Hope for the Economy

The United States and Canada Share the  Bakkan Formation

Ham on Wry watched Rock Center during its launch Monday night and reveled in the first positive economic news that had hit the airwaves in years.  Using a news magazine format, the show aired at 10:00 pm Halloween night with an astounding opening story.  Harry Smith, a former host of the CBS Early Show narrated the piece set in Williston, North Dakota.  Never heard of it?  Neither had I until NBC started advertising the show.

In the past five years, the town has doubled in size and is experiencing shortages of every kind imaginable, including workers to fill approximately 18,000 open positions.  What does Williston have that other small towns can't offer?  An oil field nearby, where 99.5% of the wells dug hit oil  The picture at the top of the page shows the location of the Bakkan Formation, which is making people rich.  The field produces about 24 billion gallons of oil a year compared to the 13-14 billion in Alaska.

Harry Smith interviewed several people for the story, and all had come from other states where they couldn't find a job.  A teacher from California and her husband currently live in the basement of a fellow teacher's home, until their home is finished in December.  The men who were interviewed are living in vehicles, and one opened his trunk to reveal clean clothes on one side and dirty laundry on the other.  He lives in another man's truck and cleans up at Walmart every morning.  Finding a place to eat that doesn't have hours-long waits during prime time poses quite a challenge to a town that hasn't caught up to its financial windfall.

Smith spent time with Harold Hamm pictured at left, who founded Continental Resources.  He has become a billionaire several times over, thanks to the Bakkan Shale.  Hamm mentioned that a friend of his has 500 openings for truck drivers, who start a $80,000 a year.  His estimate of 18,000 available positions changes rapidly, as additional jobs are created daily.  Workers at a local fast food restaurant earn $15.00, which illustrates how competition for workers drives up salaries for everyone.  The astronomical demands for people to fill positions shows no sign of abating.

Ham on Wry doesn't see this kind of opportunity anywhere else in the United States and urges people desperate for a job to consider a move to North Dakota.  The landscape is rather stark, but according to those interviewed, people there welcome newcomers.  Almost any type of position one can conceive exists here.  This blogger is delighted to report some uplifting new to readers, when we are inundated by depressing stories at every turn. As Horace Greeley said in his most famous quote, "Go West, young man.  Go West!"