North Dakota - What a Mess

The ironic point is that I'm writing about this while enjoying petroleum-powered transportation.  I've ridden across northern ND, along U.S. Route 2, several times in years past.  Long stretches of prairie, horses, cows, Indian reservations.  Depending upon my frame of mind, it can be sparse or scenic or both.  The locals are what make it fun, though.  I've always enjoyed the friendliness either at the gas pumps or the campgrounds.  This time it was all about oil.  I've read about the shale fracking boom, but it was only photos and words.  What a waste land.  We rode through continuous construction for the entire  state.  Dust and heavy equipment covered the highways and landscape.  Everything was dug up or piled up and my guess that only one in ten vehicles on the road was private.  Every stop seemed to be near a Halliburton compound    filled with supplies for construction.  The stores are filled with roustabouts that don't talk to the natives or vice  versa.  No one says hello any more  The campgrounds in the little towns, if sill open, were filled with ratty little trailers the oil workers live in.  The communities are decidedly not friendly.  All this miraculously ended at the Montana border.  We stopped at a little visitor center/museum just across the Montana border to get some maps, and the woman attending the place told us that Montana isn't as tax friendly to the oil business as North Dakota.  Maybe all the movie stars in Montana have held them off?

The campgrounds are packed

Waste water tanks

Pumping station (one of thousands)

More drilling & pumping

More drilling

Equipment supplies everywhere

The lady at the visitor center was giving out free rocks!