It's Hard To Believe -- CNNMoney Has Just Discovered the Bakken -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here. Another story from Watford City.

Believe it or not, a place exists where companies are hiring like crazy, and you can make $15 an hour serving tacos, $25 an hour waiting tables and $80,000 a year driving trucks.

You just have to move to North Dakota. Specifically, to one of the tiny towns surrounding the oil-rich Bakken formation, estimated to hold anywhere between 4 billion and 24 billion barrels of oil.

Oil companies have only recently discovered ways to tap this reserve. And along with the manpower needed to extract the oil, the town is now scrambling to find workers to support the new rush of labor.

Watford City is at the center of the Bakken formation. While it is home to less than 3,000 permanent residents, there are about 6,500 people there right now, as job hunters relocate to seek out high-paying jobs.

Unfortunately, $80,000 a year won't buy you a place to live in western North Dakota, and waitresses at $25/hour can't afford the high cost of living.

Buy my hunch is, folks will figure out how to survive. And succeed.