Images from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields boom – ‘This is changing the landscape so fast. I grieve now when I leave North Dakota.’

Desdemona Despair

By DYLAN WALSH
15 February 2013

(The New York Times) – For Elizabeth Farnsworth, the story began when she was walking her dog at a highway rest stop off Interstate 94 in North Dakota.

“My husband and I met a trucker who was making $100,000 per year,” said Ms. Farnsworth, a freelance filmmaker and special correspondent on PBS NewsHour. “That’s when I got interested in the oil boom.”

In collaboration with Terry Evans, a photographer and longtime friend, Ms. Farnsworth has since made seven trips to report on the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota. The Nevada Museum of Art is presenting a showcase of their results in a 13-week series of blog posts that focus on the people and prairie central to this rapidly evolving economic boom.

From May 2011 to November 2012, the period when Ms. Evans and Ms. Farnsworth were visiting the fields, the number of drilling wells jumped from 5,300 to 8,000, and monthly oil production doubled. North Dakota now has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. State officials predict that 45,000 wells will have been drilled by the time the rush draws down.

But for some, there is a decided downside. “This is changing the landscape so fast,” Ms. Evans said. “I grieve now when I leave North Dakota.” [more]

Elegaic Images From North Dakota’s Boom