Sara Otte Coleman, Director December 28, 2011
ND Tourism Division
Century Center, 1600 East Century Avenue, Suite 2, P.O. Box 2057
Bismarck, ND 58502
Dear Ms Coleman-
When I heard you on Prairie Public Radio this morning, I couldn’t help but think of the obvious disconnect between our present western North Dakota reality and what you apparently hope or think this area is still like: a natural and “legendary” western American landscape, the kind many Americans used to dream about and visit when they could. That “dream,” however, is no longer what visitors or we longtime inhabitants experience out here, and for you to advertise it as something it no longer is is really skirting the truth of my home landscape in these “oil boom” days; no one in their right mind would ever even consider visiting this rapidly industrializing place, let alone moving here for any other reason than to participate in the landscape and way-of-life destroying oil boom. While your job was relatively easy and straight-forward in the past, it is now greatly complicated by the reality that the western third of North Dakota is no longer “legendary” except to perhaps Texas oil companies, or maybe because of the horrific, oil related traffic on our roads. To my way of thinking, “legendary” in your marketing sense of the word does not mean dysfunctional, exploding oil towns, the constant din of oil traffic, the dust which often envelopes our formerly blue skies, not to mention the air and night sky pollution of oil & gas well flares. You may want to spend much more time out here than you apparently do, to get a better sense of what’s happening to this part of the American West as it is swallowed up by mega-scale oil development because, as they say, “it ain’t pretty.”
As a fourth generation western North Dakotan(family roots back 120 years), I think I can speak with considerable experience and knowledge on what was legendary about my home landscape- it was, simply, one of the better places in which to live on Planet Earth. I speak as a small cattle rancher near Grassy Butte, and as the April-to-October Backcountry National Park Ranger in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the latter a place formerly renowned for its solitude and silence, but now surrounded by noisy, air polluting oil wells. From a nearby ridge, I can easily see 3 oil drilling rigs within a few miles of my ranch, the view of which was always known only for the distant Killdeer Mountains, but is now marred by oil/gas well flares and those dastardly rigs. And, now, when I make my seasonal, daily commutes of 20 miles to the North Unit, I dodge more life-threatening accidents in one week than I did in all of my previous 3+ decades as a National Park Ranger.
So, unfortunately, Ms Coleman, you cannot have both a “legendary” landscape and giant oil field in one place because the two are simply incompatible in any logical sense- the former consisting of wide-open spaces, blue & big skies, endless silence and scattered farms and ranches, not to mention considerable expanses of National Grasslands and Parks; the latter pretty much wreaking havoc on all of that and the sometimes indefinable things we used to cherish out here in the real West. I suppose, though, that in the interest of honesty, you could always market this area to Texans, or maybe to other Americans- as long as you make it real clear that western North Dakota used to be “legendary”- think anyone would buy that?
Personally, I’ll stick around ‘til I can find a less afflicted place farther west in Montana or Wyoming- but then I’ll be outta here. Meantime, I’ll certainly not be recommending this formerly “legendary” landscape to anyone, either as a park ranger or rancher- including to my numerous friends all over America. Good luck with the new “legendary,” Ms Coleman, and drive very safely if you venture out here.
Sincerely,
John A. Heiser
91 125th Avenue Southwest
Grassy Butte, ND 58634
P.s. You may share this with Governor Dalrymple & others if you wish.
http://seversondells.com/north-dakota/