Fractured Land: The Price of Inheriting Oil by Lisa Westberg Peters (review)

Lisa Westberg Peters has worn many hats, including journalist, freelance writer, children’s book author, sand collector, and environmentalist. Fractured Land: The Price of Inheriting Oil tells of her latest pursuit—researching family-held mineral rights in western North Dakota’s Bakken oil field.

The book unfolds in three portions. The introductory chapters familiarize us with the author. A self-described “armchair” environmentalist, Westberg Peters recycles and drives a fuel-efficient car. But she also lives a consumer-driven lifestyle and stands to profit from family oil leases. This represents the book’s underlying, though sparsely discussed, tension. After her father’s passing, Westberg Peters begins an investigation into her family’s oil history. These first chapters of Fractured Land intertwine Westberg Peters’s journalistic curiosity and methodical research with a deeply personal narrative as the family plans a journey to North Dakota’s oil country, where they will spread her father’s ashes upon the land he held so dear.

Upon arrival in western North Dakota, Fractured Land abruptly shifts to a historically themed second portion. Here we learn that her father’s family emigrated from Sweden to eastern Iowa in the 1800s, before eventually resettling to farmsteads in west-central Minnesota. Ultimately her ancestors arrived on the frontier of western Dakota Territory. As with previous chapters, Westberg Peters combines well-researched histories of frontier life and North Dakota oil with more personal descriptions of ancestral discovery and hardship—many recounted while visiting the abandoned prairie cemeteries in which her relatives rest.

The final portion of the book finds Westberg Peters returning to the central, paradoxical question of this book: how to reconcile environmentalism with oil money. Writing on Wisconsin’s St. Croix River, she notes the clawing irony of her family’s hand-built cabin, surrounded by nature and spurring her environmental consciousness, being paid for with North Dakota oil royalties. Midway through this portion we rejoin her family in North Dakota, where Westberg Peters tours a fracking operation and takes metaphorical, if not literal, ownership of her family’s oil-rich history. After spreading her father’s ashes near a family oil well she departs for her Twin Cities home. While traversing the north-central Plains she reflects on recent conversations and events. By Fargo she begins contemplating the paradoxical environmentalist vs. oil royalty question, and she resolves the question just outside St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Rather than spoil the ending, I encourage you to read Fractured Land: The Price of Inheriting Oil for yourself, as the book holds appeal for various disciplines. Historians will appreciate the period photos, timeline of North Dakota oil development, and accounts of frontier settlement. Those interested specifically in oil will enjoy Westberg Peters’s research and detailed descriptions of the myriad complexities associated with drilling in North Dakota. Those generally interested in the Great Plains will find an accessible narrative that touches on a variety of regional themes and representations.

A singular criticism involves the central question posed on the book’s back cover: “What does an environmentalist do when she realizes she will inherit mineral rights and royalties on fracked oil wells in North Dakota?” It is a vital question given current conversations surrounding consumption, consumerism, and anthropogenic climate change. Unfortunately, Westberg Peters’s treatment of this topic pales in comparison to her rich depictions of history and family. Indeed, readers wrestling with their own paradox of environmental consciousness and fossil fuel dependence may be disappointed. This lone criticism aside, Fractured Land: The Price of Inheriting Oil is a pleasing, yet informative and worthwhile read.