Daryl will be by here again the 20th. When he left, I asked him to take a little drive around the outskirts of town and see for himself how the insanity had spread since he was here hunting last October. If he didn't, I will haul him around for an hour or two.
The boom is now reaching as far west as Cutbank and Lewistown. It is heading for Hardin and then east to Lemmon, SD. It's impact on the fringe of itself is about like it was here three years ago.
In two, maybe three years it will impact the fringe areas as it has the black gold triangle; the Williston, Wadford City, Sidney area.
When it reaches that level you will not like what you find at all. If you can find a place to park your camper or carcass, or a table to eat at, you can relish the pleasure of high fuel costs (we have been at $4.00 for more than 2 years, expecting $5.00), 28 dollar chicken fried steaks and $270.00 a night motel rooms, just as we do daily.
The company of thousands living unbathed in campers and without the company of their families, resenting you because you have clean clothes on is but one little pleasure this boom has brought to our corner of the world. The traffic snarl of thousands of trucks on streets designed for a few score, groceries that are double and triple what they sell for no farther away than Mile City, sewage lagoons that are now dead and have to be rebuilt, high crime, strained emergency services and so much more are other pleasures we enjoy from this boom.
Do I sound bitter? Well, as a property owner, I am one of those who must pay the escalating taxes for all this so the mineral owners, the oil companies and those workers who pay no taxes within in the boom make their money. I can not smile as our peaceful way of life is destroyed, while we pay for the destruction and when good folks who have no other form of entertainment when they are not working, find their way into an ecosystem that will not recover from the intrusion.
Oh well. I apologise for the rant. Frustration is a bitter companion. Come see for yourselves.
