Western North Dakota -- Siouxland -- Is Full Of Snakes: Black, White, Coral -- February 12, 2017

One thing simply leads to another. For background to this post, scroll down and read and earlier post.

Disclaimer: in this post and the previous post (linked above) there are likely to be typographical and factual errors, for a whole bunch of reasons. If this is important to you, go to the source.

So, back to where we were -- in western North Dakota -- Siouxland -- there are many, many snakes (of multiple colors):

Dating from 1930, 11 existing pipeline crossings upstream of Standing Rock Reservation:

• 1930 – Montana – Dakota Power installed natural gas pipeline on Lewis and Clark Bridge (four miles southwest of Williston)
• 1952 – Tesoro’s 8” crude line was laid along the bottom of the lake (sic) (black snake #1, I guess) [a reader pointed out that there was no lake in 1952; just the Missouri River; dam constructed between 1947 and 1953]
• 1956 – 3 additional 8” pipelines now owned by Hess laid along the bottom of the lake (black snakes #2, #3, and #4; after this it becomes confusing -- natural gas pipelines [white snakes], and gasoline pipelines (coral snakes)
• 1960 – Cenex installed a gasoline pipeline across the Four Bears Bridge (coral snake #1?)
• 1961 – raw gas pipeline now owned by Hess installed along bottom of lakeother 2 (sic)
• 1981 – Hess installed 3 more 8” natural gas pipelines were trenched into bottom of lake near Trenton, ND 1992 – Hess installed pipeline to transport natural gas from Tioga to Watford City
• 1999 – Enbridge purchased Hess Line near Trenton, and converted to crude line. Oneok now owns other two.
• 2010 – Hess converted existing 8” to crude line. Connects McKenzie county to Ramberg. 40K BOD capacity.
• 2010 – proposed Bakkenlink line would use trench method installation. Up to 100k BOD capacity.

At the link, several maps of all these black, white, and coral snakes.

Hopefully this map is not too difficult for DAPL protesters to understand:

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As long as I've gone this far, I might as well post part of the note the reader sent regarding this history. It might bring back memories for some of the old timers who grew up in this or who worked in this area:

This has really been an interesting jaunt thru North Dakota history for me. 

I did not know that there had been an oil pipeline laid on the bottom of that lake clear back in 1952. 

I wonder how long it functioned?  My parents' generation said the old Sanish Rodeo was the best they'd ever seen, crediting Brooks Keogh. 

That rodeo and the town of Sanish ended before I was born, as the water level rose and New Town came into being.  Other than that and a general knowledge of the communities that ceased to exist - Elbowoods comes to mind - I really don't know much about the dams along Missouri... other than they're in the top 5 for size (exceeded only by Lake Mead and Lake Powell).  

From another reader, after reading the above:

When the Lake was created, both Sanish and Van Hook were flooded. Folks in both places relocated to New Town. 

I always wondered about those towns; it seems I've seen those towns on some older maps.