Posted by Mike Tirone - Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

What pops into your mind when you think of prosperity and extravagant wealth?

Gold?

Luxurious beaches?

Multi-million dollar homes?

The bright city lights of Paris, New York, Las Vegas, Williston, North Dakota...

Wait, what? North Dakota?

Yes, that's right. North Dakota is where the money is pumping from the ground up. Just earlier this month we mentioned the Bakken formation underneath the small town of Williston, N.D. had created an oil boom that changed the character of the town.

Unemployment in Williston is now under 2%, the population grew 40% from 12,000 to 20,000 in just four years, and the job market is surging. Especially the exotic dancing industry...

The influx of thousands of men going to Williston looking for high-paying jobs working for oil companies has revolutionized not only the town but the spending habits. Men finish their tireless hours on the oil rig and look for a female companion for the night at the town's two strip club establishments, Heartbreakers and Whispers.

Like any strip club in America, money is thrown around with a bit less regard than say the grocery store or gas station. But in Williston, it's the amount that is making exotic dancers flock to North Dakota.

On average these exotic dancers are making $2,000 to $3,000... a night. That's more than they would make in a full 7-day week in Las Vegas.

This large injection of money didn't start up until around last year. The nightly tips were still quite stiff but with a little help – and an overnight oil boom-- the money started pouring in and the small town of Williston got flipped upside-down, like a talented dancer working the pole.

“We make more than doctors,” said “Kit,” a 36-year old stripper who has been dancing for a decade in Vegas, Texas, and California. “Back in the day, it was hard to make $200 a night. It was like pulling teeth. Now you can pull in $2,000 a night.”

Both strip clubs have now received hundreds of applications from exotic dancers from Hawaii and Alaska, to Czech Republic and Germany.

One of the club co-owners said that originally finding dancers was useless as they had to plead for strippers to work at their club. Now girls are leaving the Vegas strip and heading to the Williston clubs to strip.

And for good reason. The pay is good and it's consistent.

“Other places, [the men] wait until Friday because it's payday, but here they don't wait – it's payday every day,” Kit says.

Strippers say that most of the men have moved to North Dakota without their wives and families looking for work. They are lonely and want to enjoy themselves after working their grueling shifts which consists of four days straight with no break or alcohol and then four days off.

“So when they have days off they're gonna' drink, and when they drink they want to play,” she says.

The trickle down effect is at it's finest display in these dimly lit, smoke-and-sex filled clubs. Bartenders are now seeing their tips increased by upwards of 400% every night as well.

But it goes even further than that, as these clubs are becoming the town's second-largest job provider after these oil companies.

The demographic of these clubs is predominantly all oil workers, so finding a job on one of the oil rigs is as easy as tossing a few singles on the stage.

One owner says that local business is so impressive that when men come to town looking for work, “[they] will come here and say they don't have a job, and I say 'sit here for three hours' – and they have a job when they leave.”

Between oil and cash, Williston, N.D. is "making it rain"...

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Drill Baby, Drill: Massive Oil Boom In North Dakota
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Chris DeHaemer writes from the basement of the Hilton Hotel in Kenya's capital city, where he's covering the East Africa Oil Conference and oil opportunities.