Curiouser and curiouser
By Jessica Groth THIS YEAR MARKED THE end of
hands of the environmental movement, or
The Kevin-Sunburst field in North
more than 30 years of service to Mon-
more appropriately, the litigation move-
Central Montana, which housed the fa-
tana’s Board of Oil and Gas Conservation
ment. From shuttered sawmills and way-
mous Fulton-Rice pool, ranked first in
for Jim Halvorson. And from the Rocky
laid mining projects to pipeline protests
Montana crude oil production until it was
Mountain Front – where he grew up near
and calls to public universities to divest
later surpassed by production of the Cut
Pendroy – to the Refining City, Jim has
from fossil fuels, activists are quite liter-
Bank field in Glacier County in the early
seen his fair share of change during his
ally loving Montana to death.
1930s.
career.
The thought of drilling on the Rocky
In the 1940s, the first well in the Black-
“The Northern Rocky Mountain Front
Mountain Front today seems nearly im-
leaf Canyon region of the Rocky Moun-
is a good example of the progression in
possible, with the installment of restrictive
tain Front was drilled. And by the fifties
thought about the environment and re-
land use designations like the Badger-Two
and sixties, the presence of natural gas in
source development,” says Jim. “When
Medicine Traditional Cultural District,
the area was well-known.
I was growing up, land ownership was
which has blocked development of leases
While many small, conventional oil
often in the hands of multi-generational
approved during Regan’s presidency, and
and gas wells still speckle the Hi-Line
farmers and ranchers, and resource devel-
the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act.
just south of the Canadian border, more
opment was viewed locally as economic
But these restrictions have not always
recent oil and gas exploration has been
opportunity. That changed with increased
been the law of the land.
concentrated in the Bakken formation in
outside influences and changing demographics.” Indeed, many of the Treasure State’s foremost industries have suffered at the 18 The Treasure State Journal® 2022
“Oil drilling was common and there was interest in finding out if the large oil and gas fields in Southern Alberta could extend south into Montana,” says Jim.
Eastern Montana. But for Jim, the Rocky Mountain Front has always inspired a sense of wonder. “For years, I had looked at the moun-
