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  1. Beautiful Places Beautiful Badlands

Beautiful Badlands

A good heart will see the beauty of Western North Dakota where cattle, history, culture and scenery are unlike anywhere else. Here is what you could see when you visit Western North Dakota.
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Drilling goes non-stop as crews at the well site switch off shifts to keep the two miles of pipe snaking through the earth to reach the shale oil.  Steam from the fracking system rises around the base of the rig.
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Drilling goes non-stop as crews at the well site switch off shifts to keep the two miles of pipe snaking through the earth to reach the shale oil. Steam from the fracking system rises around the base of the rig.

early morningdrilling rigsteamBakkenDecemberMountrail countyNew TownNorth Dakotaoil rigs

  • Sunset provides a golden backrop behind two oil pumps and the natural gas flare.  Some people are upset by the flaring, claiming it's an environmental hazard.  What they don't  acknowledge is that flaring today is about a third of what it has been historically and continues to drop as recovery methods are enhanced and improved to capture the natural gas.
  • West of Watford City, the evening sun behind the camera illuminates the pre-set drilling rig for a new oil well.  Below the hill are two other pump pads indicating this is a place where oil-rich shale is in abundance.
  • Drilling goes non-stop as crews at the well site switch off shifts to keep the two miles of pipe snaking through the earth to reach the shale oil.  Steam from the fracking system rises around the base of the rig.
  • The truck is a 1940's-era Federal Truck.  The company went out of business in 1949.  This truck, parked beneath a bluff in the Badlands, along the Little Missouri River has been stripped of most parts, and left to rust.
  • Along the Little Missouri River south of Watford City is the heart of the Bakken Oil Play. It's not the first time the oil extraction industry has worked the region and the abandoned truck parked in the bluffs is a reminder that farming, ranching and oil extraction have ruled this region for decades.
  • Along the Little Missouri River south of Watford City is the heart of the Bakken Oil Play. It's not the first time the oil extraction industry has worked the region and the abandoned truck parked in the bluffs is a reminder that farming, ranching and oil extraction have ruled this region for decades.  In the distance, cows graze at the edge of the river.
  • Fracking steam drifts from a nearby rig to surround the working pump on the well pad east of New Town, North Dakota.
  • West of Watford City, early in the morning as the moon descends, just before the sun rises in the opposite sky, three pumps continue their endless motion to bring shale oil to the surface.
  • The December moon is barely gone as it sets in the west as the early morning moon rises in the east lighting up the non-stop work of the drilling rig west of Watford City
  • Early on a December morning just as the sun comes up behind the camera, the moon is descending behind the abandoned farmstead west of Watford City.  Over the hill an oil drilling rig is tapping the oil shale below the surface.
  • Old Red Dodge.
  • Drilling never stops. Just because the day is ending and the golden glow of sunset is settling in, it doesn't mean work stops. Work on this rig on the Ft. Berthold Indian Reservation continues.
  • Along the Little Missouri River south of Watford City is the heart of the Bakken Oil Play. It's not the first time the oil extraction industry has worked the region and the abandoned truck parked in the bluffs is a reminder that farming, ranching and oil extraction have ruled this region for decades.  In the distance, cows graze at the edge of the river.
  • Untitled photo
  • The  Long X Bridge, North Dakota
  • Long X Bridge, North Dakota
  • The Little Mo
  • Red Sentinel
  • Late November with no accumulated snow is a blessing in the oil fields of North Dakota.   The sun will set within an hour after this photo was captured, but the work will continue through out the night.
  • Four Bears Bridge
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