Interstate highways and rail lines make the plains a corridor of freight, and fictional carriers haul grain, oil equipment and consumer goods across a continent from prairie terminals.
The plains sit in the middle of the continent, and freight must cross the middle to get anywhere. Interstate highways and transcontinental rail lines converge on the region, and a substantial trucking and logistics industry has grown up to move the goods — grain out, oilfield equipment in, and consumer freight in every direction. The plains are, quite literally, a crossroads.
The Long Haul from the Middle
Fictional carriers such as Prairie Line Transport and Sakakawea Freight run terminals in Fargo, Bismarck and the oil patch, dispatching drivers on long hauls across the northern tier and beyond. The distances are vast, the winters brutal, and the driver shortage acute, yet the freight never stops, for a continent's commerce depends on it moving.
From the almanac's reckoning:
- Interstate highways and rail lines make the plains a freight corridor.
- Carriers haul grain out and oilfield equipment and goods in.
- A driver shortage strains an industry that never stops moving.
Warehouses, intermodal yards and distribution centers cluster along the corridors, turning plains cities into handling points for goods that merely pass through. The almanac counts logistics among the plains' essential trades — the industry that keeps everything else in motion.
Elsewhere in the Almanac
The Family Business That Anchors the Small Town
The hardware store, the implement dealer, the funeral home — family businesses handed down through generations remain the backbone of commerce in the plains town.
Tourism Finds Its Footing on the Northern Plains
From the badlands to the lakes to the heritage sites, a growing tourism trade brings visitors and their dollars to a region long overlooked by the traveler.
The Housing Squeeze in the Growing Cities
As Fargo, Bismarck and the oil towns grow, the cost and scarcity of housing have become a pressing worry, complicating every employer's search for workers.