When I first came to Dickinson, North Dakota in 2011, at about the peak of the oil boom, when I went to the Patterson Lake beach on Saturday afternoon during the summer, there were usually about 200 people on the beach if it was sunny.  These people on the beach were a mix of kids, teenagers, twenty year olds, thirty year olds, forty year olds, local people, college students, construction workers, and oil field workers.

When I came back to Dickinson in 2013, though the oil boom was still going on, I was surprised and puzzled to see that there were less than 40 people at the Patterson Lake beach during the summer on a nice day.  I wondered what had happened.

Not long into the summer of 2013, I realized what had happened at Patterson Lake beach.  The Dickinson State University girls had wanted to meet 18-28 year old, handsome, in-shape, oil field workers, who made a lot of money.  These college girls did not want to meet older local men, or older out of state workers, who were out of shape and didn’t make much money, not people who were sleeping in their car, camper, or the bushes at Patterson Lake.

As the number of attractive young women going to Patterson Lake decreased, the male out of state workers and the local males began to come into conflict at the beach.  In 2013 and 2014, even though there were not that many people at Patterson Lake beach, I saw some disputes break out between local people who had a larger group of friends, and Mexican workers who were with just a few friends, and vice-versa.

The college girls, the local people, and the out of state workers did not use Patterson Lake beach very much in 2014 through 2017.  On many nice days in the summer, Patterson Lake beach was vacant.

So where did all of the women start going in order to sunbathe, tan, and attract males?  By the summer of 2016, there was a gated outdoor pool area that was completed at the West River Community Center in Dickinson.  I believe that during the week, housewives and college student girls go to the West River Community Center outdoor pool, just like birds to a bird bath.

The other location that the women go to in order to sunbathe, tan, and wear minimal clothing, is Mosset Bay, a.k.a. Charging Eagle Bay, on the southwest corner of Lake Sakakaweja.  Right after Lake Sakakaweja was formed by creating a dam in the 1950s, the Three Affiliated Tribes, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Bureau of Reclamation began selling long term leases of land along the shore line of the lake.

The condition of these land leases were that no permanent structure could be constructed, only manufactured homes and travel trailers.  Within about twenty years, I believe that there came to be a shortage of land available on the shore line of Lake Sakakaweja, and these vacation trailer communities began to become exclusive.  If you were not an important person in western North Dakota, or a person with money, you would have a hard time obtaining a land lease along the shore line.

Mosset Bay, a.k.a. Charging Eagle Bay, became the Redneck Riviera of western North Dakota.  Many of the prominent and successful business people, farmers, and ranchers from the Dickinson area had vacation trailers at Mosset Bay.

Just like the affluent families in the northeastern United States had the mothers and children leave the cities to go to Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons during the summer, while the fathers stayed behind in the cities to work during the week, this same thing happened in Dickinson.

As any mother from a prominent and affluent family in Dickinson can tell you, you must control who you and your children associate with, in order to ensure proper breeding, and to make sure that the whole family doesn’t drop down a rung on the social ladder.

Mosset Bay was a suitable place for the wives, husbands, and teenagers to drink, socialize, and play, because they were almost entirely amongst equals and peers.

If you were a lucky, pleasant, and attractive young lady attending Dickinson State University or the University of Mary in Bismarck, you might be invited by a classmate to accompany them to Mosset Bay for the weekend.

In the video that I have included up above, you will not see a young lady of this caliber at Patterson Lake.  This young lady in the video is very likely a graduate of Trinity High School, or a student at DSU or the University of Mary.  You would only see a girl like this at the private enclave of Mosset Bay.  The only thing missing is the glimmering of baby oil on her sturdy legs and buttocks.