Jacob Martin
December 1, 2014
Culbertson
Oil Boom in Rural Places
The oil boom causes activity to increase in rural places, but that isn’t always appealing to our youth. For instance, I plan on leaving Culbertson for the lack of opportunities. When it comes to my friends and the people around me, some say they want to leave for a different environment, while others plan to stay for the high paying jobs and put up with the “black gold” life. I feel that high school graduates leave for the reason that areas like ours don’t offer the jobs they are truly interested in. I know for a fact that not very many graduates dream to become an oil worker, even though it pays well. Also, the environment here is not the safest, or the nicest. We are afflicted with bad roads, where road construction is almost a season in itself. We have extreme weather, from freezing winters to desert­like summers. Lastly, a day trip to
Williston is definitely not the most friendly and inviting place to go. The traffic is horrible, the people are scary, and stores like Wal­Mart are overwhelmingly packed with people.
Personally, I plan on leaving Culbertson when I graduate. I plan on either going to college here in Montana or in Washington. I’m not interested in working in the oil fields, regardless of the pay I could get from it. I don’t particularly like this part of eastern Montana, because I enjoy living in the mountains, and where gas is about ten cents cheaper. Another thing
I dislike about this area is rent. In this area, rent for a small house is outrageously expensive.

I think that people would stay here if it was more clean and more appealing. People would much rather stay here if we had more things to do. Things such as a local movie theatre, or more places to shop at, would make life a little more interesting. Also, if there were more variety in college