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It became one of the most-photographed signs in America, proclaiming a brash welcome to the North Dakota crossroads town that became a symbol of a new American oil rush: “Welcome to Williston. Boomtown USA.”

And for the past five years as U.S. domestic oil production soared to outstrip that of Saudi Arabia, Williston did indeed boom, its population more than doubling from 15,000 to 35,000 as oil companies piled into the area to frack the “tight shale” formations of the Williston Basin.

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No one expected prices to fall this far, this fast

As always with booms, those who got in early, got rich – rents spiked to Manhattan levels, land values quadrupled, unskilled labourers earned more than US$100,000 a year and some “mom and pop” restaurants took US$20,000 a week; for a while it seemed like the party would never end.

Now, inevitably, it has. The plunge in oil prices over the last six months from more than US$110 a barrel to less than US$50 today has sent an economic chill through Williston almost as icy as the Chinook winds that can drive winter temperatures here as low as minus 51C.