city along the main highway, Route 85. Armiger had his doubts. “Where there’s a boom, there’s bound to be a bust, and I wouldn’t want to be stuck with properties when the bust occurs,” he says. But Armiger faced his own challenges, developing a robust community out of farmland in Howard County, Md., and Ditter wanted his own. “This is the gold rush of our time,” Ditter says.
water. So Ditter and McHugh sought to extend water lines from a local reservoir. Theirs became the first subdivision in the county to get public water. With the basics in place, White Dog Group decided to get a jump on construction and work through the long winters of North Dakota, where temperatures can plummet to 40 below zero and usually limit construction season to May through October. “It was brutal,” McHugh says. “Once
you get to about 10 degrees, you’re stopped. The equipment doesn’t run, and you can’t use your fingers without gloves.” The extra effort paid off. White Dog Group sold its first unit this summer. True to form, Ditter used the July celebration event, complete with a cookout and helicopter rides, to gauge interest in his next big idea: installing a helicopter service in his development to give companies a faster way to transport critical parts to their drill sites.
“LIKE WORKING I N T H E DA R K AG E S “
Thanks to the first Homestead Act of 1862, ambitious settlers could drive a wagon out to the frontier of North Dakota and grab up to 160 acres for free by simply living on and working the land. Staking a claim is a little more complicated now. Ditter, for example, wanted to work within the rules but Williston and its surrounding counties hadn’t written them yet. They lacked the infrastructure and resources to harness the frenzy of the boom. McKenzie County, where White Dog Group’s land is located, had created a planning department only months after Ditter and McHugh settled in. The first building permit requirements weren’t established until July 2012. “It was definitely a challenge, with everyone trying to field calls and figure how to deal with development and steer people in the right direction,” says Planning Director Walter Hadley. Ditter shared his plans for a mixeduse development called Elk Ridge with his local township and the county before he started construction in late 2012, hoping the zoning would be drawn to fit White Dog’s needs. Building a development from scratch, miles from any water or electrical lines, wasn’t easy. “It’s like working in the Dark Ages,” McHugh says. “You have to reinvent the wheel to even get started.” McKenzie County residents primarily get their water from wells, but that wasn’t going to work for Elk Ridge, which would require a much larger volume of
24 TERP FALL 2013
PHOTO BY CAMILLE CURRY