American Frontier (ca 1953)

[Music] e [Music] [Music] the wind blows west from the Great Lakes the wind sings like a wild bird across the northern states coming at last to this place the sweep of America 10,000 square miles of prairie across Montana and Dakota they call it the Williston [Music] Basin not so long ago this was Frontier listen closely and you will the old ghost echo of covered wagons the Phantom Shadows of pioneers fighting for their lives against the Wilderness lean men hard as Hickory lonely women wearing their dreams like a bit of bright [Music] Calico they began with nothing with their bare hands and a bucket of Hope breaking the land with Freedom's plow planting towns with names American as a banjo tune Fogle Stampede Bluegrass bavage Lincoln Valley [Music] Willison Halverson's my name Nels Halverson wheat farmer and school teacher I was born and raised here east of Montana along the Canadian line Williams County North Dakota if I were somewhere away at the end of the Earth and thinking of home the thing I'd remember would be winter the enormous Frozen silence the snow cutting us off from the world like a wall the wind slicing across the fields the way we say it gets the cold Shadows freeze to the ground and have to be PRI loose with a [Music] [Applause] [Music] pickaxe it might seem like a sort of desolate place to some but we're mostly Norwegian up this way we've got an old immigrant prayer that goes should all things perish fleeting as a shooting star oh God let not the ties break that bind me to the [Music] north [Music] 8:00 Monday morning I've already put in an hour of chores at the Farm by the time I turn up at the school a one room country Schoolhouse at the edge of a wheat [Music] field I look at these kids with their Restless faces grandchildren of the Pioneers descendants of the long rifle and the bull Tong plow I find myself wondering that proud searching spirit that drove men out long NE Trails is it still alive in them in me I wonder if this familiar stretch of land were suddenly to become Frontier again how would we meet the test it may not be long before we know there's a tense feeling in the air a sense of waiting as though some great door is about to swing open I remember remember how it all began so quietly a few solitary men climbing the hills crossing the fields a geologist searching for clues in the shape of a valley the composition of a stone the fossil of a leaf that was green at the time of the dinosaurs and then the seismograph crew coming in to map the underground drill a hole and drop a dynamite charge the shock waves going down to hit the buried layers of stone and bounce back to be recorded on sensitive [Music] instruments by then we all knew what they were doing the object of their search was oil hard to imagine that somewhere a thousand miles across the continent men were adding years of scientific research checking reports approaching a decision that might open a new world on our doorstep from all of our available data I'd say that this is it east of Williston here south of tyoga and the southwest of 6 15595 there's a fair chance of striking oil in a number of reservoir rocks I remember the day last winter Saturday morning it was I was working with my paw he's a tough stubborn old gent been out here in Dakota raising wheat since the days when there was nothing but log cabins and a railroad Depot friend of ours came by a local lawyer Oscar norstead he had a fellow with him a stranger name of Roland turned out to be a man from The Citadel oil [Music] company I remember we invited them inside for some of my wife Barbara's good coffee and the usual talk about the weather and the wheat crop the reason I'm here is we'd like to least the mineral rights on your land we're offering 10 cents an acre rentals on a 10year lease wheat is good enough for me most of our operation is underground the fields are still yours you can go right on Farming and if you should hit oil you get the standard royalty 1/8 of every barrel your company is crazy there's no oil around here every four or five years another company comes around buys up a bunch of leases there must be half a dozen dry holes out there on the Prairie we're willing to take our chances how about it we'll think it over do that we want you to feel right about it I'll be back in a week or so I drink every drop of oil you can find in North Dakota no sooner did the first visitor take off than the next one came rolling in another landman from Burns [Music] petroleum I remember within a week we had half a dozen offers we took our time deciding we've worked hard for what we've got it took the sweat of generations to turn the Prairie into wheat land and then came the 30s I was only a kid but I'll never forget the dead look of the land burnt dry by the drought when the wheat went everything went the debts piled up until there was nothing a man could do but slam the door and walk away somehow my paw hung on he had a motto stick and stay it's bound to pay and it did finally few seasons of rain and the Earth Earth was rich again the fields golden with grain the wheat like a running River so now when the oil companies came we took our time making up our minds man with a couple of full silos and 50 head of cattle can afford to take his time finally we signed with Citadel that was last year and since then not a word out of them maybe they've found out there isn't any oil maybe PA was [Music] right Neil over at Bronson's place they started drilling is that right a gracious a bunch of hudos come on I want to go see well all right let's go take a look out in Bronson's North 40 they were putting up a giant 10-story Derek they call a [Music] rig the geologist showed us around and it was like watching a little town take shape welders and rabs working in the stinging cold putting up the drilling platform digging the mud pit stacking pipe stringing power lines working with numbed feet and icy fingers getting things ready to sink the drilling bit into the Frozen [Music] Earth we can get out of the wind in here guess once you start to drill you're pretty sure of finding oil down there we're not sure of anything in this business it's always maybe the only way to find out is to drill only about one out of nine of those wild cats ever comes in how much does it cost to drill a well like that well it depends the first hole drilling in this weather as deep as we'll have to go probably cost about half a million that's the oil business a real gamble one out of nine with half a million riding on the black pretty tough odds plenty of men willing to take it especially when there's a chance to make a profit indar head yeah found it right over there right where we put the rig it's for luck we're going to need it [Music] in the evenings after that I watched Barbara I could see she had visions of an oil well out in the middle of our Wheat Field new wallpaper in The Parlor and a college fund for the kids we hope to have [Music] someday and Pa he keeps saying they're crazy but he's drink seeming too 10 more head of cattle a new barn a new Harrow the old one's about shot and me I don't know I'm not sure what sort of changes will it bring everywhere in town you hear people talk about oil the farmers around the county the closest most of them have ever been to oil is putting a couple of quarts into a tractor and suddenly they become experts talking about jack knife Rigs and rotary drills of course there are plenty who still say I'll stick with [Music] wheat I told my P if we get oil let's get a car as long as a house what did he say we'll be lucky if we get a wheel B afternoons when I get home from school before I start my chores I find myself going out to the rig to stand with Joe guthrey the tool pusher watching the crew rugged bunch of boys Tong buckers from Texas Ru necks from Oklahoma and Arkansas watch them changing a bit pull out the pipe clamp on the big tongs the man on the cat head spins are in Reverse uncoupling The 90ft Joint point of drill pipe then the block hoists it to the Derk man up on his monkey board 85 ft overhead waiting to snare the pipe and manhandle it over into the rack then the block shooting down again to grab the next joint Split Second timing slam on the brakes clamp on the tongs yank out the safety slips the Dr and the tong buckers working together with the Swift Precision of an All-American backfield a rugged proud independent breed always ready to pull up stakes and head out to wherever there's oil to be found California Montana Gulf of Mexico or right in our own [Music] backyard [Music] [Music] nights back in town a group of us began getting together store owners doctors lawyers years all right maybe it will all come to nothing maybe it's just another false alarm all I'm saying is it's important that we plan a little just in case plan for what housing office space we're allowable to have 50 companies couple thousand newcomers overnight what about health facilities we're overcrowded at the hospitals as it is I can tell you that if they strike oil it'll be the biggest thing that ever hit this state it'll be the frontier all over again new folks roll ring in and their children who knows how many do we have room for them in our schools what is this oil what happens when they find it a wild scramble boom and bust what happens I don't know I I'm just asking I want to know Mr Mayor I moved we set up a we ended up by forming a citizen's petrolum committee to work with the oil companies and get the facts to make a survey of the town and find out exactly what facilities we [Music] had meanwhile Citadel was learning the hard way about a North Dakota winter the deadly cold 30 below and the wind like a fist in your face most of the crew was from the south and to them the cold was beyond [Music] [Applause] belief [Music] [Applause] the supply trucks were having trouble getting through fighting a nerve-wracking battle to keep moving along the [Music] highways it got so when a man left home for the rig they' radio on ahead to make sure he wasn't marooned somewhere a dozen times cars were stranded and they had to send out searching parties [Music] the company was taking every precaution it could but it was a brutal backbreaking job struggling against the ice 24 hours around the [Music] clock sometimes the bitter weather got to be more than a man was willing to take where are you going to get my fur hat where's it at in [Music] Oklahoma yet somehow the drilling went on and the bit kept gwing away at the iron hard Earth funny to think of those Indians living here for centuries those first homesteaders who may be a fortune right under their feet how could they have known and if they'd known what could they have done about it you're right takes the tools the skill the freedom to explore invent discover you think of the Gold Rush all those people racing for the Hills some of them passing right over a treasure a thousand times more Rich maybe maybe it seems as though everywhere you go people are passing along reports on the latest depth I hear she's down to 5,000 ft they tell me she hit 6,200 this morning down to 8,255 and then the day came when they got down past 11,000 and the drilling sto St the end of the line the word spread that if there was any oil this would be the last depth where they could hit it from miles around people came to watch just a thin pipe sticking out of the ground over an empty pit and everyone waiting this is the payoff or is it a few moments and they'll be throwing open the [Music] valve We Stand There Our Eyes glued to that pipe will it just keep spilling its thin stream of muddy water or will it gush forth the white foam that means oil waiting waiting each of us with his hopes his secret dreams [Music] by God it this is lot of oil to drink they Flash the word from the field to the production office at Williston and from there to the central office in Oklahoma day and night our little telephone board was lit up like a Christmas tree calls from New York California Houston bit by bit we began to realize how big a thing this was a river of cars came pouring in from every corner of the country the streets and hotels jammed with a stream of New Comers reflecting all the marvelous varied crossweave of America every day bringing a new flood of cars every train bringing new faces a construction engineer coming in on a fast Express from Cheyenne a pipe salesman flying up from Tulsa Trucking outfits and supply companies bringing in everything from 6-in bolts to storage tanks riveting guns to road graders rig Builders and drilling contractors rolling in ready for work 100 oil companies racing to get a foot in the doorway competing for leases Drilling Wells across 10,000 square miles of North Dakota and [Music] Montana landmen and lawyers waiting their turn to pour over the county records all the Planning by the citizens committee finally paid off we were ready with lists of available office space new housing was underway there were extra books for the new kids at school a thousand questions were in the air the oil companies tried to answer them by picking a panel of experts and sending them out across the Basin to a series of town meetings perhaps you are not familiar with the fact that petroleum is a source of insecticides rust preventatives Plastics alcohol and a thousand other products however it is not possible to give you all of the use of crude oil at this time perhaps some of you have some questions do any of you folks have any questions I was just wondering how long is all this going to last I guess what's on your mind is the old story of boom and bust I can assure you that we will been in the willon Basin for a great many years looking for oil the expiration process is only in its infancy in the old days the idea was to punch as many holes in the shortest time possible get the oil and get it quick but like everybody else the oil companies live and learn our policy is scientific conservation in the best interest of the people all over the country we're learning how to produce our fields in a manner in which we can ensure ourselves of the greatest ultimate recovery if I still had any questions about boom and bust through the next month I saw the answer with my own eyes I became aware of the new techniques the modern miracles of conservation the companies had devised I began to realize that this was something that stretched far beyond these familiar Fields here they were producing power for the nation to run its cars and to heat its houses to run its factories and to keep it strong the ceaseless pounding of work was like a heartbeat pouring energy out through the veins of [Music] America and then the word came that on next Monday morning they were going to start drilling on our land of course we hoped our well would come in but I couldn't help thinking suppose they hit a dry hole it had happened before to our neighbors across the fields and what about the folks back in town who don't own any land what about them what would oil mean to their future again I found the answer before my eyes I found it on the morning Tommy Larson forgot his lunch and his PA stopped by to drop it off that was the first I knew Fred Larsson had taken a job with an oil company then I began to realize that there were others local people working at new jobs experts coming in bringing their special skills and teaching them in turn to my friends I finally understood that oil will enrich the lives of hundreds of my neighbors who will never own a well or see a drop of petroleum I finally knew for sure that the coming of oil was good for all of [Music] us the wind of spring blows west from the Great Lakes the warm wind sings across Montana and Dakota coming at last to this [Music] place but there is a new song in the air a song of great promise winter will come again but it will never be the same for this land is more than weak now and life is no longer at the mercy of the seasons now in this place and new Frontier is born a new breed of pioneers work to bring forth The Riches of the land the pounding Temple rising from this Prairie is the heartbeat of a great nation forever seeking a new American [Music] frontier