'I'm really thankful to have work'

For much of the past year, CJ Vaughn has been in North Dakota trying to make a living — something he couldn’t do in or around Kalispell after graduating from Flathead High School.

“I needed some money, something to do, and came out here and started working,” said Vaughn, 19.

He’s not the only young man from the Flathead Valley who has headed east to find work.

“A lot of my buddies all just kind of disappeared because there’s no work in Kalispell, and they heard how everyone was making so much money,” he said.

“Every other person, you ask where they’re from and they’re from Kalispell.”

It’s not just a young man’s game, either. Vaughn’s stepfather, Jim Wagar, also has been working in North Dakota as a truck driver.

Vaughn started out working 17 hour days on an oil derrick, a tough way to make a living during any season: People were getting hurt and getting frostbite.

Now he’s working about 80 hours a week as a “hot shot,” driving parts and equipment to various drilling sites. The pay is $4 an hour less to start, but the work is better.

When Vaughn is not working, he lives north of Williston in a winterized camper parked on a lot owned by his boss, who also is from Flathead Valley.

Vaughn said he hopes to make it through another North Dakota winter and what may be his second Christmas away from home.

“I don’t like it here, but I’m really thankful to have work. Back home I had pretty much nothing. There’s a lot of good and a lot of bad,” he said of the situation.

Vaughn intends to work in North Dakota through the winter and come back to go to college next spring.

“If the economy would improve back home with jobs, I’d pretty much pack my bags and head back. The money’s nice [in North Dakota] but you can’t help but get a little home sick,” he said.

His mother, Michelle Vaughn of Kila, said she’s sad to see what young men such as her son are going through in North Dakota to make a living. She’s been out there and doesn’t want to go back, especially with her other children at home and still in school.

“It’s pretty heartbreaking, all these teenage kids trying to carve a living, and they don’t know how to do it and we don’t know either,” she said.

With North Dakota’s oil boom going full speed ahead, living and work conditions are far from ideal.

People are expected to work at least 80 hours a week. A single day off can mean the loss of a job, with a seemingly endless supply of workers standing by or moving out to fill positions.

“They’re heading out there guaranteed they’ll get a job, but what they have to do for it is really the biggest thing,” she said.

The oil-field boom has lured more than young workers: Older men with obligations at home also are being forced to find new ways to make a living, thanks to the ongoing economic downturn.

Facing a shortage of work around home, Wagar, a third-generation Northwest Montana logger, turned to the North Dakota option.

Having watched the Flathead logging industry and then the construction industry grind to a halt, he and a brother decided to take a couple of trucks over to North Dakota in June.

“It was down so much, and got so slow,” Wagar said. “A guy has to do something. I hate to do it.”

Wagar isn’t the only worker from Montana over in North Dakota, not by any stretch.

“I know probably just as many people over there as I do here, because everyone is over there ... [But] there’s people from all over the world trying to get in on this money,” he said.

Wagar has been hauling stuff to and from Williston, Watford City, Killdeer and Dickinson, N.D.

“I’ve never seen it in my life, as many trucks as there is running around,” he said.

“There was a time in Williston, coming in on U.S. 2, the main intersection was backed up a mile and a half with trucks just waiting to turn. Any sort of truck you can imagine.”

While the money in North Dakota can be good, the costs of living a life on the road — and also maintaining a home back in Kila — all add up.

“If a guy tends to business and can handle the hours, he can come back with a little bit of money,” he said. “Work, come home and eat, sleep and work. But that’s no life, either.”

With hotels, apartments and RV lots reserved for months in advance, Wagar spent his first couple of months in North Dakota sleeping in his truck. Then he was spending $650 a month to park a camper. He looked into getting an apartment, but balked at the cost of $1,800 a month plus utilities.

“It’s just a tough spot over there,” he said.

Mechanics are booked for five to eight weeks in advance and parts stores are few and far between. Both are free to charge as much as they want, so Wagar keeps what he can in his truck in case of a breakdown.

“You got to be something of a self-sufficient mechanic or you’re on your own,” he said.

North Dakota just wasn’t prepared to handle the oil boom and the influx of so many people, he said.

The Walmart in Williston is so busy it’s out of some kinds of food 90 percent of the time.

“They just can’t keep food there,” Wagar said. “They don’t even have time to stock it on the shelves. It’s on pallets in the aisles ... I’ve never seen anything like it with the people and the traffic.”

Wagar plans to work through the winter in North Dakota, take some excavation equipment out next spring, and take stock next summer to see if he wants to keep going there for work.

For now he’s happy to be home for a few days at Christmas time.

Everyone in the family agreed that it’s been a hard way to keep the bills paid and make ends meet.

“We’ve made a lot of personal sacrifices,” Michelle Vaughn said. It’s a sentiment shared by other Flathead Valley families with people working in North Dakota.

“Everybody has a different system, but there really is no good system. You just have to make the sacrifice,” she said.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.