By Thelma Gutierrez and Wayne Drash
CNN
August 5, 2008
"Oil," he says, "it's amazing. You don't have
to work at all. You just walk to the mailbox and there it is."
The 74-year-old grandfather receives whopping checks at the
end of every month for the oil. He'll never forget the time the first check
came in January.
"Thousands, I guess you'd call it," he says.
Geving chuckles when asked if it
was for $2,000.
Was it closer to $10,000?
"You can keep going up and up and up," he says
from his home, decked out with a massive fire pit in the living room, semi-circular
leather couch and bright orange shag carpet.
He had worked on the home for more than 40 years. Now, he's
expanding it -- just because he can.
The town has grown from 1,250 people to more than 1,600
since the start of the year, says Mayor Mike Hynek.
The oil has brought better paying jobs, raised real estate values and spawned
millionaires.
"Practically everyone is being affected by it," Hynek says.
It's not uncommon to hear stories of 20-year-olds with no
job experience getting hired to work in the oil fields with starting salaries
of $70,000 a year. Gary Dazell makes more than
$100,000 a year hauling water to and from the oil
fields.
"The oil field has blessed us," he says.
Then, there are stories like Geving's
where locals suddenly come into a fortune for owning the mineral rights. Geving says he's amassed so much money that 70 relatives
will get sizable sums when he dies.
The town sits in an area known as the Bakken
Formation, a vast region below
"The continual amount of oil in
Mayor Hynek says the region is so
flush with oil that it's nearly impossible for an oil well to come up dry.
Standing in the middle of a downtown street, he says, "I'm fairly certain
that if they drilled a well here, they'd have oil."
"There's oil down there. No doubt about it," he
adds. "They just need to perfect how to get it out."
It's always been known there was oil in the region, but it
wasn't always cost effective to drill for it or the technology wasn't good
enough. When oil was cheap overseas, it also was easier for a company to import
it, rather than explore for it, experts say. But that's all changed with high
oil prices.
Better drilling technology, some good oil finds in the area
and the political push for oil exploration in the
"I think we can be a positive impact for the whole
country if we can figure this out," Hynek says.
But the boom comes with a cost.
The mayor says roads -- many of them gravel -- weren't built
to sustain huge equipment being hauled to and from the fields; the town's one
hotel is completely booked; and an RV trailer park is overflowing.
Houses are hard to come by too, with the average price
jumping from around $30,000 to about $100,000 in the last three years.
"We have a real housing shortage at this time. But
eventually, it'll be OK," Hynek says. "It's
a good challenge. It's better than going the other way."
"My biggest concern today is making sure our
infrastructure is adequate for the growth that we'd like to maintain."
Nearby, at Joyce's Cafe, the topic of oil is thick as the
coffee served at the communal gathering spot.
Farmer Robert Western worked in the region's oil fields 48
years ago, but back then the boom never came. Soon, a well will be going on his
property.
He never thought five decades ago he'd have an oil well of
his own. "I'd have said you were crazy. It wouldn't come to pass," he
says, peering out from a weathered black baseball cap.
He says if they find oil, it won't change him. He's lived
frugally all his life, a survivor of the Great Depression.
"It's just kind of difficult to change a pattern of
living," he says, adding he'd love to take a trip around the world and
donate money to charity.
Farmers Sheryl and Roger Sorenson spoke humbly too of the
possibility of finding oil -- that in some cases a well brings in $2,000 a day
depending on how much is found.
They say they'd straighten out their finances; enjoy more
free time; help children and take family members on a trip to Disneyland or
"We're old enough now so we don't have great desires
for bigger and better," Sheryl Sorenson says.
Roger Sorenson says he thinks of all the old timers who
lived hard-scrabble lives for decades but missed the modern-day boom.
"They always had the hope, but it never came," he
says. "It's kind of sad for them because they went through life and never
got it. And now, it's coming."
As for Geving, he says when he was
a boy, kids carried eggs and milk buckets, and people worked their "tails
off." Now, he's building a brand new home for his foreman and his family
of five.
Geving -- who's nicknamed Jed Clampett by the locals after the "Beverly
Hillbillies" character -- likes driving out at night to get a closer look
at the wells. He said the wells stand for
"success. I'm glad I'm able to help my family."
What's he think of when he looks at the oil wells?
"Money," he says. "I can't get tired of that.
... I just grin all the way to it and back."
CNN's Gregg Canes and Traci Tamura contributed to this
report.
cnn.com