Human Interest: Texan Descendent Of Epping, North Dakota, Homesteader Visits The Bakken

Dallas Morning News is reporting.

[When I went to the link, I was blocked out, requiring a subscription. I placed the "headline" in google search and got the article. The headline: Homesteader’s grandson offers personal view of North Dakota’s great oil rush.]

The article begins:

EPPING, N.D. — In the early 1900s, as American homesteaders made their last big push for free federal land, more Western soil was claimed than during the previous 40 years of the Homestead Act.

By chance, some of that dirt happened to cover what has become one of the richest oil formations in the world, the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, which pumps more crude than any state but Texas.

Thousands of descendants of those original North Dakota homesteaders now benefit from the hard toil of their ancestors.

I am one of them.

When I received the first modest royalty check a year ago, I set out to learn more about my homesteader ancestors and the new North Dakota oil boom, which is helping to reshape the balance of power in world energy markets.

It’s a small, personal connection to one of the biggest ongoing business news stories. Because of shale plays in North Dakota and elsewhere, like Texas, some experts forecast eventual North American self-sufficiency in fossil fuels, meaning no dependence on oil from the Middle East.

And then a very, very long article follows.

Epping, by the way, is the home of a huge CBR terminal. (see photo #7 at this site)

I am convinced this story is not out-of-the-ordinary based on the e-mail I receive from folks with a similar background.

Excellent, excellent article; a must for everyone, but especially "newbies."