The Bakken: An Archaeology of an Industrial Landscape

The arrival of fracking technology in western North Dakota led to an industrial renaissance that transformed sleepy farm communities into crucial cogs in the global extractive economy. Fracking technology made the area a global destination for roughnecks, petroleum engineers, pipeline "cats," fishers (who "fish" for tools and other objects accidentally dropped down wells), truck drivers, carpenters, contractors, and electricians as well as journalists, adventure scientists, academic scholars, photographers, and filmmakers. The bustle of heavy industry and a landscape of dramatic contrasts present a magnetic attraction for the adventurous traveler. Pack your camera, your sulfur dioxide sensor, a pair of steel-toed boots, and your flame resistant Carhartt clothing as you get ready for a unique journey to a frontier landscape forged by industry.

William R. Caraher is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of North Dakota. He specializes in Mediterranean archaeology; Early Christian and Byzantine architecture and settlement in Late Roman Cyprus, Greece; and the contemporary Bakken oil patch of western North Dakota. Since 2003, Caraher has been co-director of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project on Cyprus and the co-principal investigator of the North Dakota Man Camp Project. He is the co-author of Pyla-Koutsopetria I: Archaeological Survey of an Ancient Coastal Town (2014) and co-editor of Punk Archaeology (2014), The Bakken Goes Boom: Oil and the Changing Geographies of Western North Dakota (2016), and the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology. Bret Weber, PhD, LCSW, is an associate professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of North Dakota. His terminal degree is in US History with emphases on 20th Century social policy and environmental history. As a member of the Grand Forks City Council, and as co-director of the North Dakota Man Camp Project (along with service on the boards of the local Housing Authority, Community Action, Fair Housing Center, and various other boards and committees) his work focuses on social justice issues related to housing, and the social, physical, and economic environment. In a previous life, he owned a small chain of pizza shops and other restaurants where he met payroll every two weeks for over twenty-five years.