Crazy Town

When Jason Aldean sings about a crazy town he is referring to Nashville.    In the case of Nashville, people go there to meet important people, hope to make a big break then hope to become famous, then rich.  It's crazy because that dream can only come true for a few people.  There have probably been thousands, even tens of thousands, of people that have tried their best to make the dream of fame and fortune come true for them.
Any (formerly) small town in western North Dakota could argue that they are now the Crazy Town. 

In the last couple of years horizontal fracturing (fracking) has revolutionized the oil drilling industry.  Oil locked in shale formations and previously unreachable miles below the ranches and coolies of western ND and eastern Montana is now shooting out of the ground at record breaking rates. People also have been flooding into the area at record breaking rates. Oil was drilled in the 60's and 80's but not at the volume it is coming back today.  People that do that kind of thing, keep finding more oil.  People that analyze that kind of thing say it will be years and years before we even find all of the oil under ND, much less pull it all out.  Right now 98% of all rigs drilled come back profitable.  I don't know a whole lot about drilling for oil but I do know that back in the day before fracking, wildcat drilling was not any where near that accurate. 

Hundreds of drilling rigs brings hundreds of drilling crews.  All of those wells need servicing after the drilling is done.  All of the people needed for oil industry jobs have been flooding western ND.  None of the towns in the area, big or small, were prepared for the influx of people.  The grocery stores responded to the massive increase in business by raising their prices.  Many other businesses in town followed suit.  They could all probably double their prices again before there would be any noticeable difference in sales.  From our small town, the nearest Walmart is an hour drive over a road packed full of trucks.  Prices are better there but the distance and crowds deter me. 

  Hundreds of extra people has also filled housing in the area to capacity.  This has forced people into some creative housing situations.  Early comers were able to purchase or rent houses but soon those were filled.  After that people started pulling in campers and mobile homes.  If someone has a little space in their yard, they rent it to someone with a camper.  If they have a lot of space? They rent it to a lot of someone's with campers.  We were fortunate enough to find a camper space in a small trailer court.  Soon after we moved in the city passed a moratorium on new temporary housing. 

Now that all the spaces in town are filled up, people are finding even more creative solutions!  It is not uncommon to come across a group of campers or mobile homes parked in a pasture.  Some places have gone to the time and expense of digging in water and electricity but many places are relying on generators for power and large tanks for water.  New houses are going up in town at break-neck speed. 

The place below has appeared this fall and winter.  Billed as "workforce housing" it is a growing collection of mobile homes, each split into several separate living areas.  I checked out the pictures and descriptions on their website and the living areas are little more than a hotel room with one bed instead of two.  They contain a full bathroom, one bed, mini fridge, microwave and a counter area.  Rumor has it rent starts at $1200 per month.  That is for companies that want to rent in bulk for employees, it's more for individuals. 

As I see more and more ridiculous housing options, I am so happy that we were able to find a place to live.  We live in an established residential area of town.  Finding the place we did was great for a camper and even better now that we are in a mobile home.