N. Dakota's New Crop: Instant Millionaires

Many North Dakotans are enjoying their own milkshakes as oil makes landowners instant millionaires. Oil companies are drilling new wells at record rates, and those lucky enough to own the land above deposits are becoming wealthy overnight, the AP reports. "It's the easiest money we've ever made," says an ex-sales clerk.

The president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council puts the number of new millionaires, anecdotally, at one a day. Some large new homes are being built, but most North Dakotans "don't want people to know how much money they got and they don't want to be tagged with being wealthy—they want to be themselves," says a local government official. (More North Dakota stories.)