NY Times Bicyclist-Reporter -- Blogs On North Dakota -- Great Story -- References the Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.

I crossed the border from Montana on I-94. It’s legal to ride on the Interstate in these parts, though not especially enjoyable, and I got off at Exit 1, Beach (how does such a landlocked place get such a name?), and stopped at the visitor information bureau. The attendant, a woman named Jan, not only set me onto old Highway 10 — a scenic, rolling byway that runs west to east, essentially traffic-free through the western half of the state — but also offered me cough drops.

I was on my way to Medora, the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park about 25 miles away, and I asked if there were any services on Route 10 between Beach and the park, places I might stop for a cold drink or a meal. She said there was just one, a tiny little burg about seven miles down the road called Sentinel Butte. The gas station there is a hangout, she said, where people stop in and shoot the breeze.

“It’ll be a good stop for you,” she said.

And so it was. A lot of speck-on-the-map towns I’ve ridden through are pretty desolate and rundown, but Sentinel Butte is an attractive little place set in the middle of seemingly nowhere, surrounded by miles and miles of wheat fields and prairie. The lawns are green and the homes are neatly kept and the whole place — you can take it in with one sweep of the eyes — gives off an unlikely whiff of prosperity.

As it turned out, no one was hanging out in the gas station, except the owner, Rick Olson, who is also the mayor. We sat at a card table inside the station, enjoying the air-conditioning on a hot day. A voluble fellow (maybe you’d be, too, if you lived there), he explained the the town was flush even though its property taxes amounted to less than $2,000 a year — “Not even enough to pay the electric bill,” he said — because it sells water to the oil companies that are exploring much of western North Dakota these days. Right on cue, two huge tankers rolled past the station, full, on their way out of town.

Nice story to read.