4/4/2012: North Dakota oil drilling was an oddity in the first half of the 20th century. Thirty years of wildcat drilling in the state’s northwest corner left nothing but dry holes. So, in 1950, when the Clarence Iverson farm outside the community of Tioga hosted an oil drill, it was a real oddity. There were no small number of skeptics. Oil wells in North Dakota? Gushers in wheat country? The idea seemed absurd to many.