That Didn't Take Long -- Follow-Up to Man-Camp Story -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

A huge thank-you to CRC for alerting me to this story. It's a big story in more ways than one.

Link here.

I am out and about in the Bakken and cannot access a computer/web browser optimized for my blog. I am using a PC with Microsoft IE browser which does not suit my blogging well. I cannot link easily and I cannot post comments on my own blog! That's why I can't thank CRC directly, at the site where the comment was made. In addition, I am not posting some comments for now that I get because I cannot reply to them. There are some comments that should not be left hanging without a comment from me.

So, some comments and my comments in reply to others will have to wait.

In addition, I may not link quite as often.

Anyway, back to business at hand.

I posted earlier about Dickinson't moratorium on new man-camps (or at least a refusal to permit a 600-bed man-camp being proposed by a developer with an impeccable track record in North Dakota).

At the time I opined that several unintened consequences would develop. Already one of those unintended consequences was reported in the Williston Herald yesterday. Today, the Dickinson Press has a story of another unintended consequence: more truck traffic on asphalt state and county roads. (Regional links break often and break early.)

A temporary housing company from Boston has found land in Dunn County for a planned 595-man crew camp.


Though the camp is not being built in Dickinson, Target Logistics President Joe Murphy said it will still affect the city in a positive way.

“It will lessen pressure on the Dickinson housing market,” Murphy said. “It will mitigate the distortion in housing prices.”

Target Logistics applied for a special use permit to build a 600-man crew camp northwest of the 21st Street West and State Avenue intersection earlier this month but was turned down last week by the Dickinson Planning and Zoning Commission.

Following that hearing, several people approached Murphy with ideas for a project location. Ken Kubischta, Dickinson, was one of them.

“(The plan) was nice and neat,” Kubischta said. “Talking to the different people — the survey guy and the people hauling out the scoria for them — they all noted they have a very good reputation for keeping it nice and tight and correct.”

A new proposed site would be located southwest of the Highway 22 and 27th Street West intersection 8 miles north of Dickinson. The land covers almost 25 acres.

There was no mention of more vehicular traffic in the Dickinson area due to more remote nature of this proposed man-camp.