Faces of the Oil Patch

Faces of the Oil Patch is a new production from Prairie Public Television. It will premiere on Prairie Public on Wednesday, May 16 at 9:00 pm (CT). You may have heard about the oil activity in the western part of the state. This documentary gives you a look at how the towns in the Northwestern part of the state are dealing with the growth from the oil activity.


I attended the screening of the documentary at NDSU and found it informative. I am originally from the Northwestern part of the state and it is interesting to see the increased activity. The small town I grew up in has changed considerably in the past few years. We may complain about the traffic in Fargo/Moorhead but some of the towns up there are just as bad now. When I went through Minot over Christmas, I was looking forward to our traffic again after dealing with the traffic up there.

The documentary will be aired multiple times after the premiere. It covers the benefits as well as the challenges that the towns are experiencing. The Williston City Commissioner said that before the oil activity the population of Williston was about 13,000. Now they are figuring there are about 30,000 living in the city, with the man camps and campers, etc.