Bill Harvey
Shortly after the Texans figured out how to fracture shale formations for oil, North Dakota had become second only to Texas in domestic oil production and a little prairie town with little more than a grain elevator and a railroad depot came to be the center of a twenty-first century boom. Overnight, Williston North Dakota exploded. It was colder than the Alaskan Klondike, richer than California in 1949, and had more sin and sinners than Mark Twain’s Comstock. So this is the story of economic boom, bust, and conflict. The fracking boom tripled the population of Williston almost overnight. There are lots of horny young oil field workers working lots of overtime and earning more money that they ever had in their lives. Problem was, there was no good way to spent it -other than in the strip clubs, so there are also some ’Soiled Doves’ -with hearts of gold and otherwise. Add some greedy lawyers and politicians who are all about getting rich as soon as possible. Then there are some drunks, druggies, and folks at the end of their rope justtrying to stay warmWilliston is on the prairie where wheat and barley grow, so there are regular folks -Lutheran Farmers with roots in Scandinavia. Some have been there for generations and are simply trying to raise families and stay out of the boom.
