Along the Bakken Formation in North Dakota is a significant increase in the number of rigs for oil (and some natural gas) now that the extraction technology has improved. Lots of people coming up to the area to work on the rigs (or setting them up) and normally lower-paying service jobs are advertising at 2x the normal rate (hotel service for example). For housing, there is a big shortage of housing in general, I believe the rents per square foot are the highest in the country (source), and there are three main types of new housing.
First are permanent structures that are mostly long-term residence hotels, similar to the ones in Winnemucca during the recent silver rush.
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| Permanent housing |
Second are slightly more temporary structures that are basically the standard trucking container built into apartments and stacked 2-3 high in leveled off areas near the rigs.
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| Temporary housing |
Third are just leveled off dirt lots with 100's of RVs parked on them. (sorry, no picture came out for them)
The changes from the last time we drove down Route 2 a few years ago were myriad, and one other notable addition was the large number of new drilling rigs or rigs under construction.
Today's journey was mostly about playing in the water park in Grand Forks, so didn't roll out of town until about 3pm Central, then gently rolled down Route 2 through Grand Rapids MN and ended up in Ashland WI for the night. Tomorrow should be an easy ride to my parents in Upper Michigan, looking forward to some non-travel days for a couple weeks.
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| Tin Man |
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