The New Wild West Quotes

“she seemed caught between her desire to be treated as an equal and her traditional upbringing. “I fight and fight to be equal among the men,” she told me once. “But when they treat me as an equal it still makes me mad, because I should still get to be a girl sometimes. I should still have two or three buddies who will fix my tire for me.” Feeling unsure of where she fit in was isolating and exhausting. Which Cindy Marchello did she want to be, the fiercely independent woman who wanted to be equal in every way to her male coworkers, or the traditional Mormon woman who once looked to a man to provide the paycheck while she cared for her family? The person she identified with could change by the moment. “What do I really want?” she asked once. “Actually, I just really want a paycheck. Just leave me alone. Let me do my job and let me go home.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“All his life, if he’s given free time, he gets himself in trouble. He was a great soldier but a terrible civilian. He’s good at working; he’s terrible at not working.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“well site to find a coworker and spilled out everything that had happened. When she was done, the man replied, “It wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t such a dirty whore.” Marchello never officially reported the incident.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“It became kind of a beacon for people,”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“The region lacked mental health services and alcohol and drug treatment programs. There were no psychiatrists in Williston.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“Evidence of sex trafficking and prostitution in the area added to the uneasiness. Ads for female escorts in Williston filled Backpage.com, like “Riley,” 22 and from Hawaii, who “always aimed to please.” And “21-year-old Megan,” who claimed to be “fetish friendly.” Rumors spread about prostitutes targeting man camps and truck disposal lines, where truckers would sit and wait for hours to unload oil field waste, to find new customers. Williston resident Gloria Cox stopped letting her 13-year-old grandson walk anywhere alone because of the child trafficking rumors she heard.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“Crime was increasing. Statewide, homicides were at the highest level in nearly 20 years. Rapes were at the highest level ever, according to data going back to 1990. And there were 2,872 drug-related arrests in the state, up 64 percent since 2002. In 2012, the NorthWest Narcotics Task Force, which covered the oil patch area, confiscated more than $85,000 in methamphetamine. And alcohol was a factor in more than half of the deadly traffic accidents in the state that year. Headlines on the front page of the Williston Herald in 2012 included “Man Robbed at Gunpoint,” “4 Arrested on Kidnapping Charges,” “Man Shot in Williston,” “Two Arrested on Burglary, Drug Charges,” “Man Jailed for Indecent Exposure.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“Rawlins,”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“for Real Oilfield Wives,”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“scoria”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“Basically you can do anything short of killing somebody.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“There also was evidence of sex trafficking on the reservation. Native girls as young as 12 and 13 would disappear from their homes, then resurface a week or two later with matching red flag tattoos. Investigators suspected pimps had branded them.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“The boom brought an increase of crime, drug use, and damage to sacred tribal lands. Industry trucks dumped toxic fluid into ditches by the road or unloaded radioactive waste, a byproduct of fracking, into garbage bins and backyards.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“Despite her newfound independence, Cindy didn’t seriously consider divorcing Richard.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“voracious”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“; 20-year-old Kyle Winters died after power tongs collided into his chest when he worked for Heller Casing; Joseph Kronberg, 52, was electrocuted on site.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“It’s difficult to prepare workers for what to do in a situation when a $2 million piece of equipment breaks in the well or when a highly pressurized hose releases a razorlike stream of air through a pinhole leak, potentially cutting off the limbs of anyone who walks by; or when a tank full of flammable liquid explodes into a ball of flames; or when a tornado touches down a few miles from the well, as happened to one supervisor.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“It was easy to see the financial appeal of oil field work.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“Others saw their parents feel betrayed after staying loyal to a company or participating in a union, so they had little desire to do the same.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“Medora.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“And a typhoid epidemic nearly wiped out 10 percent of the population of Grand Forks in 1894 after sewage leaked into the city’s water system.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“Children froze to death only yards from their homes, women committed suicide, cattle … blew over in the gale force winds and died where they fell.” As the snow melted, dead cattle were seen drifting down the swollen Little Missouri River. The next year, another blizzard killed nearly 100 people. Others suffered from frostbite.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“human debris.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“skid shacks,”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“At times the newcomers stood out because they were more diverse than Williston was accustomed to. It was now not uncommon to see Black, Hispanic, Native American, African, Asian, or Arab workers walking the streets or at local restaurants.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“man camps,”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“I was over 50 and a woman and I was on unemployment. They got all kinds of tax breaks for me. Most of my bosses are, like, my kids’ age.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“I met a guy who was a driller up here in Williston and he said, ‘Number one, quit applying everywhere and go to Halliburton in North Dakota.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“Many women in the area complained of feeling unsafe, and local statistics supported their fears. Cases of assault, harassment, domestic violence, and rape had risen dramatically since the once-sleepy region began attracting thousands of male workers. Women spoke of carrying concealed weapons when they shopped at the grocery store and avoiding the bar scene, teeming with lonely males looking for female company. Rumors were rampant about where the next attack might occur—I frequently overheard women chatting about which areas to avoid or where a friend of so-and-so was attacked while walking to her car.”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown

“Nationally, 85 percent of oil industry jobs are held by men, and most women in the field work as engineers, administrators, medical personnel, or on cleaning staffs. Oil companies tout this as gender diversity in their press releases, but women hold fewer than 2 percent of the jobs beyond those positions. The gender inequality in the field has made nearby Williston—the only population hub for over 100 miles—look like a seething all-male metropolis complete with strip clubs, greasy burger joints, Coors Light chugging contests, bar fights, and seatless Porta Potties on oil rig locations”
― Blaire Briody, The New Wild West: Black Gold, Fracking, and Life in a North Dakota Boomtown