in North Dakota this past year.

They are following me. :(

Why not say 153% or 517%? They have as much basis in fact.

So what? 8 more mormons moved there?

Heh heh, right on!

population in places where those move-ins formerly lived is DOWN.

I understand a thing or two about the oil patch, and there's no way the Bakken boom is attracting oober-goober RM mormon boys and their families, no way.

http://www.kxlh.com/news/bakken-boom-man-camps-spring-up-for-oil-field-workers-in-mt-nd/

Well, yes, it's all the horror stories you've heard, however, the Williston, ND ward is blowing up - standing room only. So, in fact, there are a lot of "Mormons" moving to the oil patch it seems.

I know a good number of Mormon men who left the Idaho valley that i used to live in, to find work in the oil thing in North Dakota. They leave their families for 6 or so weeks at a time and come home for a week or 2 and then go back.

The information came from the Democratic Headquarters in the city where I live, NOT from LDS sources. The growth is in Eastern ND, not the oil patch.

The take at the Democratic headquarters is that Mormons tend to move to low income areas. The city where I live would qualify as low income.

The ward my husband attends has doubled in size the last year and a half, so I don't know that the statistics are that far off.

We have added three Mormons in six months to the place where I work.

Those Mormons, of course, each have several kids.

I had noticed the trend, but didn't know until today that there is someone tracking the trend.

I just found it interesting.

Out of all the responses, yours asks a thoughtful question, without judging the content of the post or the intelligence of the poster, or bolstering your own sense of importance. For the twelve years I've been on this site--reading every day but rarely posting--you have been a consistent example of class. Thank you.

1+

82.3% of all statistics are made up.

I can see why, as you said, they would move to low-income areas. But is there something driving such a large influx at this moment? Economic, political, other?

When I moved to Grand Forks in the late 1970s, there were 2 wards in town. When I left a few years ago, there was one, though the city was 50% larger.

And what is this nonsense about Mormons moving into low income areas? Mormons moving to places outside the Morridor generally move either to be near family, or because of a corporate transfer. People in corporate transfers don't move to low income areas, and not that many people have family in ND.

I spent a couple days playing tourist in Watford City, in the heart of the heart of the oil patch. It was not as chaotic as I had expected based on the news stories, but the amount of growth and truck traffic is amazing. I saw a lot of Arizona license plates on pickups. Boy, are they going to be surprised come December.

I will ask around and see if I can find out if there has been a growth spurt of TBMs in Grand Forks.

PS - the average square mile of oil producing land around Stanley, ND is paying $40K to $50K a month in royalties, according to a GFHerald article earlier this month. ND is on track to have the highest per capita income in the US. It is already the second highest oil producer after TX, recently beating out AK.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2012 10:42PM by Brother Of Jerry.

I live in Eastern ND. I am familiar with the GF ward. I have seen the usual influx and outflux of TBM grad students, and military families in the last few years I've been here. It doesn't really appear to be much bigger to me, maybe a bit...? I'm not really in the know on the numbers though and it's been about 9 months since I attended regularly. Maybe with the health care facilities here, there's a bit of an additional draw...?
nolongerin: are you comfortable saying exactly where you live?

There used to be a major missile and bomber wing at the Air Force base 14 miles west of town. The two wards were essentially the base ward and the town ward. This got shuffled from time to time, because the base ward population was so transitory. They tried two mixed wards, and 1 base ward and 1 town ward. Either setup had substantial problems.

With the end of the Cold War, and the SALT treaties, the Air Force base was downsized, though growth at the university and just general growth of the city kept Grand Forks at about the same overall size. It lost a good slice of its population after the city-wide flood in 1997, but it has now rebounded from that hit too. Somewhere in the 1990s, one of the wards was discontinued. There is a decent crowd of cars in the parking lot on Sundays, but I don't think there has been any move toward splitting the ward. So, there is one ward, which is the same as what was there almost 50 years ago. If there is growth, it is glacial.

Almost all the Mormons I knew were connected with the university, which is the major employer, especially of educated people from out of state. I resigned there, and got a letter from the bishop, and was flabbergasted to see that the bishop lived in Grafton, a farming community 40 miles out of town. Wow. Ya gotta feel for that guy, driving into town at least a couple times a week in what have to be some pretty bad conditions during winter storms. And they couldn't find a bishop in town?

From what I saw, admittedly second hand, but over a 33 year period, was a ward that was stable but stagnant, with new blood mainly coming via BIC Mormons moving in for professional jobs at the university and related institutions.

Williston, Dickinson, and Minot have experienced massive growth in the last 5 years, and I know some of it has been from Utah. When I drove through Watford City a few weeks ago, there was a sign for a big construction project, and the general contractor was a Draper, Utah company. Western ND is relatively (and I emphasize "relatively"!) close to SLC, about a 15 hour drive.

Many of the towns there are expected to triple and quadruple in size, and some some smaller towns already have tripled. This is guaranteed to bring in some Utah Mormons. Yeah, there goes the neighborhood! :)

Not all the jobs are truck drivers. There are computer people, lots of construction managers, city planning consultants, teachers, drillers, of course, and even some Utah strippers. I wonder if they attend the local ward?

Major cities with wards
Fargo (2 plus a YSA ward)
Bismarck (2) - there is a McTemple in Bismarck
Minot (2) - surprise since it is smaller than Grand Forks, so far.
Grand Forks, Jamestown, Devils Lake, Dickinson(oil), Wahpeton, Williston(oil) (1 ea)

Small towns with branches: Rugby, Stanley (oil), Fort Yates (Standing Rock Reservation, near Bismarck), New Town (oil, Ft Berthold reservation), Beulah (coal). I was surprised at all of these. They are very small towns.

There are larger towns than these in eastern ND with no LDS congregation (Cavalier, Grafton, Hillsboro, Valley City, Casselton, among others).

Minot is also just exploding. There are tons of LDS there comparatively speaking. I know a TBM couple that went up there a few months back to do the usual - chat up the members, do a few job intereviews and see if they wanted to live there.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Major cities with wards
> Fargo (2 plus a YSA ward)
> Bismarck (2)
> Minot (2)
> Grand Forks, Jamestown, Devils Lake,
> Dickinson(oil), Wahpeton, Williston(oil) (1 ea)
>
> Small towns with branches: Rugby, Stanley (oil),
> Fort Yates (Standing Rock Reservation, near
> Bismarck), New Town (oil, Ft Berthold
> reservation), Beulah (coal). I was surprised at
> all of these. They are very small towns.
>
> There are larger towns than these in eastern ND
> with no LDS congregation (Cavalier, Grafton,
> Hillsboro, Valley City, Casselton, among others).

Here is the math then:

13 Wards
5 branches

We'll be generous and assume 200 people per ward average sacrament meeting attendance, and 30 people per branch

Total real membership, therefore is 2750

The cult claims 6930

it is probably just dead people.

No, no, no, no no! We are supposed to be moving to Missouri, not North Dakota, the spook testified to me that it was twwooo.

But that is the oil business. I am aware of several families that have moved there from the Uintah Basin because of the active drilling, etc in W. ND.

We will see how many are still around in a year or two; im guessing it isn't many.

the population of Mormon's is increasing in North Dakota. It is for sure not from a booming amount of baptisms.

Exactly - not from a booming amount of baptisms. Members are moving to ND, which is in itself kind of wierd. Whoda thunk - Mormons in ND. Then again, I guess they follow the money trail...

Maybe they aren't very bright in North Dakota.

Maybe they were supposed to be headed to Missouri but,someone's Liahona is broken...or, like Cumorah, Eden moved north...

be a safer place to survive the appocalypse.