In 1995 it was slowly shrinking, especially in rural areas. The New York Times argued in favor of Reopening the Frontier.

Better yet, spin off the sparsely settled stretches of both Dakotas and Nebraska and Kansas, along with the equally empty eastern stretches of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, and let it all revert to territorial status. Now there's a step that would neatly symbolize the victory of the new frontier and the inversion of the winning of the West -- decommission a state or two and make some of the continental United States a territory again.

North Dakota, as an experiment, had failed. Step backward in time to the 1880s, argued the gray lady.

Give up.

What about an oil boom? One had started in the early 80s, but when a Times reporter rode around in 1995, he decided it wouldn't come back.

Now the Times is reporting on the travesty of real development North Dakota Went Boom:

One of the  more curious aspects of oil development in North Dakota is that the people making arguments against rampant growth, environmental degradation and the messy business of extracting oil are somewhat few and far between, proverbial voices in the wilderness.

Before North Dakota had failed. Now that it's succeeding, it must be stopped. Curious perspective.