Dakota Datebook: Oil and Drinking Water

Oil

July 31, 2019 — It was on this date in 1955 that the state’s monthly oil production topped the one million barrel mark for the first time, when 1,000,154 barrels were produced in July of that year.

It was in 1916 that the Pioneer Oil and Gas Company began drilling the state’s first wildcat well southeast of Williston. It turned up dry, but that didn’t stop the many attempts that fol...