(STARTRIBUNE) — WATFORD CITY, N.D. — His tan overalls splattered with oil field mud, 41-year-old trucker Scott Brevig sat next to his semitrailer truck inside a rented machine shop and cracked open a Full Throttle energy drink. It was 9:45 p.m.
Brevig still had to fix a leak under the hood before he could huddle to sleep in a camper where he lives with his fiancée, housing too scarce and expensive in this booming region.
A former Anoka painting contractor, Brevig took his car to the shop for repairs back home. Here, he’s had to figure out how to fix his own giant diesel machines because local shops are overloaded. “There’s no resources here,” he said, shrugging.
But Brevig’s enthusiasm trumps his exhaustion. With an economy fueled by new oil-drilling techniques, “It’s a land of opportunity, by all means,” he said. “You can grow into whatever you want here.”
