How The Discovery of Oil in North Dakota Shaped The Community That Started it All

(Photo by Jacob Orledge/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – Dirt roads. No sewer. No running water. Tioga was a town of 456 people built along a railroad, with agriculture serving as the economic lifeblood for hardy homesteaders who had settled the area.

The community’s fortunes changed in the early morning hours of April 4, 1951. The Clarence Iverson well, surrounded by deep drifts of snow from recent blizzards, struck oil a few miles south of Tioga.

That discovery touched off 75 years of oil exploration in North Dakota and started an industry that now accounts for more than half of all taxes collected in the state.

Tioga, locally considered the oil capital of North Dakota, is no longer at the heart of the state’s oil and gas exploration. But it remains a microcosm of the state’s experience with a commodity-based economy. The town has experienced its peaks and valleys, watching thousands of people flood its streets during boom cycles and struggling to weather the storm when the activity goes bust.