Tombstone, Ariz. Within seven years the town burgeoned from a population of to over 14, Besides a school, four churches and three newspapers, it boasted saloons and 14 gambling halls, a theater, and โ not to be overlooked โ an opera house. If the name of the place sounds vaguely familiar to you, it was the location of the Gunfight at the O.
Corral featuring the Earp brothers versus the bad guys. Sometime thereafter, the local silver mine penetrated the water table, the water pumping station burned to the ground, the mine closed down, and today, although the town still exists, it has a population of about 1, people, and its major industry is tourism.
Folks come to see where the gunfight took place. There might be some similarities, at least temporarily, between Tombstone, Ariz. From a population a century ago of perhaps a couple hundred persons, Stanley grew to 1, in , and with the subsequent Bakken oil boom, to over 2, a year ago. Our story today is about an entrepreneur who came to Stanley as a refugee from another boom and bust cycle, in Oregon.
Mark Higgins, known all his life as Huggy Bear, was a carpenter and then builder of custom log cabins in the Great Northwest. He got his logs from Montana, and became something of a saw mill operator, cutting his logs at each construction site. He was known as the Dirt-to-Done log home developer, at least until the credit implosion of No credit meant no buyers of custom homes.
Again business was booming. Main St. For the next three months it was all they could do to keep up with the demand, both for housing and food. Stanley is not a big place, and there were thousands of new mouths to feed โ people with big appetites. At 16, square feet, the Two Way was the largest restaurant between Minot and Williston.
