# Moving to ND



## jig em' up (Mar 25, 2011)

Hi!
I'm new to this North Dakota forum, I always just frequent the South Dakota Outdoors forum. But anyways I grew up in Mobridge and went to college at SDSU in Brookings. I'm graduating in May and have a job in North Dakota. I can pick between living in Minot, Dickinson, or Williston. I grew up fishing walleyes in the Oahe, and hunting pheasants and grouse in the river breaks. What town would you guys want to live in if you could pick?? Pros and Cons please. The only town i have been to in ND is Bismark, and that was just to get grocery's and school clothes when i was living at home. I'm kind of leaning towards Dickinson, but Williston is right on the river so that is a plus for that. If i could get some opinions that would be great! thanks for reading

Jig


----------



## Savage260 (Oct 21, 2007)

I have lived close enough to all three to list em 1. Dickinson, 2. Minot, 3.

Dickinson is a pretty decent town, I have never liked any thing about Minot, and I guess you know what that says about the last one. Even though it is farther away from the big lake than the others, I think there are more hunting opportunities in Dickinson, and it is an all around nicer town.


----------



## jig em' up (Mar 25, 2011)

Thanks for the reply savage! That is pretty much what i have been hearing, that Dickinson would be my best choice. Another thing Dickinson has is a college so hopefully there might be a few single women running around !


----------



## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Dickinson is good if you mainly hunt upland.But you can pretty much forget waterfowl.Minot is much better for waterfowl.Plus.....there is upland there also.And Minot also has a university....larger than Dickinson.Minot it just as close to Lake Sak as Dickinson is.


----------



## averyghg (Oct 16, 2006)

If you were smart you'd pick none of them, if you make 70-80k a yearg in dickinson and williston its like the equivalence of making 40-50K bismarck and east. Go to a few realestate websites for dickinson and williston, may make you change your mind.


----------



## jig em' up (Mar 25, 2011)

Avery,

I would love to live in Bismark, it would be alot closer to home. The problem is the company i'm going to be working for doesn't have any projects going on in the Bismark area. I have already looked at a few different real estate websites, and i saw there aren't too many options for a nice home under 160,000 in Dickinson.


----------



## averyghg (Oct 16, 2006)

jig em' up said:


> Avery,
> 
> I have already looked at a few different real estate websites, and i saw there aren't too many options for a nice home under 160,000 in Dickinson.


No there arent, i have been looking for a house the last 6 month because im getting sick of paying $1000/month for a tiny little apartment. I have went and looked at SEVERAL places in and outside of town and the pictures they show on the internet for most of these places are very deceiving. If I would have known what i was getting into i would have never moved out here and now im stuck here for 2 more years. Think deeply about your decision because its a huge one


----------



## KurtR (May 3, 2008)

After working in all 3 the last five years, I would have to go with minot. None of them will compete with Mobridge(out doors wise) except for the single girls which if there is more than 2 they have us beat. It is amazing how much it cost in all 3 cities compared to bismark. It is hard to even find a camper place in williston we were lucky as we had an office there to park campers at. I hope you like a buck tag every other year as ND has an *** backwards lottery system for deer hunting.


----------



## driggy (Apr 26, 2005)

I would think housing would be more of an issue in Minot and Williston. Haven't heard much about the boom affecting Dickenson, but it wouldn't surprise me. Have relatives in Minot and the oil boom really has it's market screwed up. At least with it though, you can find something decent east of there, as long as you don't mind a 30 min + drive each way to get to work.


----------



## Savage260 (Oct 21, 2007)

The oil is most definately affecting Dickinson, but not as much as the other two. If girl chasing is high on your list of "hunting" priorities, I would suggest Minot, but you will have slim pickins any where you go. I still think Dickinson will be your best all around choice, but then again, I couldn't care less about shooting ducks or geese. Good big game, fishing, and upland opportunities, a nicer town, right on the interstate, better housing market, closer to your home, sounds like what you are looking for.

Minot housing market has been messed up since long before the boom. When my in-laws were looking for houses we saw houses for $190 thou that wouldn't bring $125 here in Devils Lake. They were usually smaller, only one garage, and usually older too.


----------



## averyghg (Oct 16, 2006)

Savage260 said:


> Good big game, fishing, and upland opportunities, a nicer town, right on the interstate, better housing market,sounds like what you are looking for.
> 
> .


Big game hunting around dickinson= 1 buck tag per every 5-6 years of applying for most units, UNLESS you know someone very well and they let you on, but not likely

Fishing around dickinson= crap, atleast williston is closer to the river, every smaller body of water around dickinson winter kills every single year which equals small fish except for tschida which is a 50 minute drive. Minot i say is best as far as fishing, lots of nice little bodies of water with good fish and close to very good fishing on the river

Upland hunting around dickinson= marginal to good, that is until the nonresidents come in and rape and pilage every piece of plot land around for 100 miles. Getting on private land usually is gonna break your wallet, so unless you know someone who owns land you have to get used to road hunting.

Waterfowl hunt around dickinson= worst yet, williston probably the best and then minot

Those are my honest opinions and pretty accurate, I would say housing would be worst in williston, then dickinson, and then minot, speaking from experience in all places


----------



## jcnelsn1 (Oct 28, 2008)

From a hunting (especially waterfowl) and fishing perspective in my opinion Dickinson is a very distant third behind Williston and Minot. Dickinson does have an awesome Thai restaurant though..... Personally I would pick Minot just because it is bigger and has more amenities than Williston and not quite the chaotic growth of Williston.


----------



## wurgs (Mar 3, 2008)

.[/quote]

Upland hunting around dickinson= marginal to good, that is until the nonresidents come in and rape and pilage every piece of plot land around for 100 miles. Getting on private land usually is gonna break your wallet, so unless you know someone who owns land you have to get used to road hunting.

[/quote]

Would have to disagree with that. I have been going out just west of Dickinson for the last 6 years and the landowners have been great, just have to knock on a few doors. Only been turned down once that I can remember and thats cuz his kids were coming home to hunt but said we could hunt the following weekend. Pheasant and grouse hunting excellent till the last 2 winters which decreased populations quite a bit. Partridge has been tough hunting lately but can have good shooting when you find them.


----------



## jig em' up (Mar 25, 2011)

Thank you guys for all the replys! I will keep them in mind when making my decision. I am just curious how the fishing is on SAK north of dickinson around the mouth of the little missouri river, before you get up into the Van Hook Arm. Anybody catch nice eyes on some of those points around there?? I do see that there really arent any lakes around dickinson besides Patterson Lake, so that is kind of a bummer.


----------



## nodakoutdoors.com (Feb 27, 2002)

BTW - this _should_ be a good year (finally) for Sakakwea. Looking forward to it myself.


----------

