When I first started this blog website over 2-1/2 years ago, in my first blog posts I wrote that the local people here in Dickinson were unfriendly, uncooperative, and hostile to people who came from out of state to work in Dickinson.  I wrote that the local people here in Dickinson hate people from out of state, and anything that out of state people say to them, only makes them dislike out of state people more.  I also wrote that the local people here in Dickinson, hate each other too.

I have lived in Dickinson for almost five years now, and it just continues to be demonstrated that the local people here are unfriendly, uncooperative, hateful, and hostile.  Because of my experiences here, and what I have seen and observed in Dickinson, I would recommend to people from out of state, to not get involved in Dickinson.

I recommend to people from out of state who come to work in Dickinson, to plan on having as little involvement in Dickinson as possible.  I understand moving to Dickinson to work.  Due to the oil boom, there were higher paying jobs with more overtime hours, than other places in the United States.  I came from Idaho to work in Dickinson.

When I first came to Dickinson to work in 2011, I just planned on making money, saving money, and returning to my home in Idaho.  When being hired at my first job in Dickinson, my employer had told me and another man from Montana, that the company would provide housing for us.  I had bought a truck camper to put on my truck before I drove to Dickinson, so I just stayed in my truck camper on the company property at first.  My local Dickinson co-workers, began complaining to the company that it was not right or fair for the company to provide housing for me and the other out of state worker.  It would not have harmed or cost my local Dickinson co-workers anything, for the company to provide housing for me and the other out of state worker.  However, my local Dickinson co-workers complaining because they were hateful, hostile, unfriendly, and uncooperative, caused the company to not provide housing like they had said they would when I was being hired.

Next, my local Dickinson co-workers began complaining that it was not right for me and the other out of state worker to be able to stay in a camper on the company property, for free.  I explained to my local co-workers when they complained about me staying in my camper on the company property, “I have a home like you do, but my home is in another state.  I have to pay all the same housing bills as you do, house payments, property tax, home insurance, and utilities, for my home in Idaho.  I don’t want or need two homes.  I can’t afford to pay for two homes.”

I found out at the first company that I worked for in Dickinson, and at the second company that I worked for in Dickinson, that the local people hate people from out of state.  Anything you say, or anything that they find out about you, just makes them hate you more.  Even saying something innocuous, just makes them hate you more.  Anything you say, or anything you tell them, they will spend all day trying to figure out how to use it against you.

After everything that I have experienced in Dickinson for the five years that I have lived here, I need to warn out of state workers, to plan before you ever arrive in Dickinson, to have as little to do as possible with your local Dickinson co-workers, and have as little involvement as possible in Dickinson.  The more that people find out about you in Dickinson, the more problems you will have.  The more that you become involved in Dickinson, the more problems you will have.

At the first company that I worked for in Dickinson, my employer asked me what I thought about Dickinson.  I knew what he was getting at, he wanted to know if I was planning on staying in Dickinson.  I said the only positive thing that I could think of, I said that I thought it was nice that Dickinson had a lot of undeveloped land and was not over crowded.  However, what I was thinking in my mind, was that I was not about to try to stay in Dickinson.  The least expensive old one bedroom apartments rented for $1,500 per month if you could even find one available, and it would be in a wretched building and a bad neighborhood.  I was not about to sell my quiet peaceful home in Idaho on five acres, in order to buy a horrible shitty townhome in a bad neighborhood in Dickinson for $120,000.

What employers and local co-workers were always trying to find out, was how invested and how trapped were you going to become in Dickinson.  The employers and local co-workers knew that the out of state workers would have to pay 400% to 500% more than they did for housing, and they really enjoyed this.  The local people in Dickinson are hateful and hostile to out of state workers, and they actually enjoyed and took satisfaction in knowing that the out of state workers were being taken advantage of tremendously on housing.  The employers and local co-workers were very interested in finding out what your plans were.  They wanted to find out if you were going to stay, they enjoyed finding out how much you had to pay for housing, and they wanted to determine how financially burdened and how trapped you were becoming.

Any hesitation or resistance that an out of state worker showed to becoming committed to paying for extremely high housing, was seen by employers and local co-workers as an indication that a worker was not planning on staying, and they didn’t like it.  They didn’t like it because you might be planning on quitting your job and leaving Dickinson, and they didn’t like it because you deprived them of the satisfaction of being taken advantage of by the local people, one of them.

I recommend to out of state workers, and I have been recommending this for the past 2-1/2 years, do not buy a home in Dickinson at this time.  The home prices are still very high.  The oil boom is over.  The number of oil field jobs may stay roughly the same, or there may be a decrease in oil field jobs.  There are a tremendous number of newly completed apartments in Dickinson, and the occupancy rates at these new apartments is below 50%.  Housing prices will continue to decline, home prices will continue to decline.  Do not buy a house in Dickinson now, because in two years houses in Dickinson could easily be worth 20% to 50% less.  Also, you face the possibility of not being able to sell your house in Dickinson.

I saw that the employers in Dickinson and the local co-workers were interested in what the out of state workers were going to do for housing, because they enjoyed finding out how bad the out of state workers were being gouged by the local people, and they were looking forward to the out of state workers becoming trapped here.  The employers wanted the out of state workers to get into an expensive housing lease or mortgage, so that they would have no choice, they would be stuck here and have to work for them.  The employers were also looking forward to the out of state workers getting into an expensive lease or mortgage, being stuck here, having to work for them, and then employers being able to drop the pay rates.

When I found an inexpensive and stable place to live in Dickinson, I brought over from Idaho, two extra trucks, two equipment trailers, and equipment to begin doing self employed construction work in Dickinson.  I later regretted doing this.  I was again taught the lesson to have as little involvement as possible in Dickinson.

My landlord became more difficult and disagreeable, once he saw that I had so much equipment and property here in Dickinson, that I could not easily leave, that I was stuck here.  When I started moving my equipment back to Idaho in preparation for moving out, my landlord changed his behavior immediately.  I regretted becoming invested in Dickinson, trying to do business here, bringing vehicles, equipment, and personal property here, then a local person knowing my situation, thinking that I was stuck here, and then trying to take advantage.

When I had to re-buy $800 worth of equipment that I had just taken back to Idaho, from a local equipment dealer in Dickinson that I bought this equipment from last year, the local business owner was incredibly shitty to me.  A few days ago when I was talking to another local business owner, who I had bought a generator from, this local business owner was also incredibly shitty to me.  I regretted doing business with these local business owners in Dickinson, and I regretted trying to operate my business in Dickinson.

When I began to think about my experiences here in Dickinson, I regretted just about every involvement in anything here in Dickinson.  Going out to eat at restaurants, going out to bars, the staff are not friendly, and the customers are often very trashy and low class.  Leaving restaurants and bars, the police in Dickinson are very aggressive in following people, hoping and trying to arrest them for something.

Public recreational places like Patterson Lake and the West River Community Center are often not good places to be, because of misbehaving people and hoodlums.  Business owners that I have bought multiple pieces of equipment from have turned out to be very unappreciative and nasty.  Co-workers that I have tried to be civil to have caused me problems.  Local people that I have tried to be friends with, have shown to be unhelpful and greedy.  People that I have helped, have been unappreciative and have caused me problems.

If I had good sense, I would follow my own advice, and try to have as little involvement as possible in Dickinson.  Don’t go to restaurants and bars in Dickinson.  Don’t go to locally owned businesses in Dickinson.  Try to spend as little money as possible in Dickinson.  Pay as little as possible for housing in Dickinson, don’t get on a lease, and don’t buy a house.  Don’t go anywhere, stay at home, and only go to WalMart when you need something.  Try to save as much money as possible so that you can leave Dickinson and have a normal life elsewhere one day.