North Dakota Went Boom

Long before the full frenzy of the boom, you could see its harbingers at the Mountrail County courthouse in Stanley, N.D. Geologists had pored over core samples and log signatures and had made their educated guesses, and now it was the hour of the "landmen," the men and women whose job was to dig through courthouse books for the often-tangled history of mineral title and surface rights.

By CHIP BROWN

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/magazine/north-dakota-went-boom.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0