Posted on 07/01/2008 3:05:39 AM PDT by CapnJack
BEULAH, N.D. — Oscar Stohler was raised in a sod house in western North Dakota and ranched there for nearly seven decades. He never gave much thought to what lay below the grass that fattened his cattle.
When oilmen wanted to drill there last year, Stohler, 83, doubted oil would be found two miles underground on his property. He even joked about it.
"I told them if they hit oil, I was going to buy a Cadillac convertible and put those big horns on the front and wear a 10-gallon hat," Stohler recalled.
He still drives his old pickup and wears a mesh farm cap — but it's by choice.
In less than a year, Stohler and his wife, Lorene, 82, have become millionaires from the production of one well on their land near Dunn Center, a mile or so from the sod home where Oscar grew up. A second well has begun producing on their property and another is being drilled — all aimed at the Bakken shale formation, a rich deposit that the U.S. Geological Survey calls the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed.
Landowners in western North Dakota have a much better chance of striking it rich from oil than they do playing the lottery, say the Stohlers. Some of their neighbors in the town of about 120, from bar tenders to Tupperware salespeople, have become "overnight millionaires" from oil royalty payments.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
But I hope they don't "Move away from there" and "head to Beverly".
Good for them! I can’t imagine that living in North Dakota is easy or luxurious. These people have probably worked very hard all of their lives. Good for them to now have the means to enjoy more of it.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Speaking of sod homes, have you ever heard of straw bale houses? http://www.balewatch.com
Well, good for them. Why haven’t the Democrat leadership put an end to this? This is doing nothing but tearing up land that the cows could use for grass and increasing the chances for more global warming. Think of the children. Oh, the humanity of it...
Aw man, almost over night they went from being the noble downtodden poor with the white man boot be on they necks to now being the rich white man. Brother Barracks along with Hairless Reid and Nancy Piglosi will surely fix that asap. The evil rich have to contribute their fair share.
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