Photo of Bakken Rig Drilling a Gusher (ND, USA)

Some folks have been asking if I could post a photo of one of the pure-play Bakken companies drilling one of their gushers. With pleasure:

In an effort to further cut costs, this unidentified company is seeing if they can drill wells with just one roughneck. When it comes time to go horizontal, he will bend the pipe with his bare hands. (If you click on the photo, it will open much larger in a new window.)
Just joking. This is obviously not recent drilling activity. You can tell because the driller is not wearing an OSHA-required hardhat.

In fact, based on where the photo was found in the family's photo album, it was likely taken in 1937. This was one of several photos of a seismographic crew working on the photographer's parents' farm near Williston. The photograph was taken with a 1916 box camera.

I find this photograph, and the other two that accompanied it, absolutely incredible. This was back in 1937. Oil was not discovered in North Dakota until 1951. You really have to hand it to these men for their perseverance. And to the young man who took his box camera and snapped the photographs.

A big thank you to Harvey Thompson for sending it to me.