McKenzie County

The county in brief

A traveler's read on McKenzie County

Population in McKenzie County grew 124% between 2010 and 2020 — from 6,360 to 14,706 — the fastest-growing county in North Dakota and one of the 10 fastest in the entire contiguous United States per Census Decennial. Driver of the explosion is the Bakken Shale, the source-rock formation 10,000 ft below the county whose hydraulic-fracturing extraction since 2008 has routed more crude oil through Watford City (the county seat) than any other US county outside the Permian Basin per North Dakota Industrial Commission Oil and Gas Division monthly production reports. Travelers will see the boom infrastructure on every county road — flaring well-pads visible at night, fleet camps repurposed as RV parks during downturns, and water-haul truck traffic on ND-22 and ND-200 that demands defensive driving across blind-curve grade crossings.

The North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park sits inside McKenzie and is the more-remote, less-visited TR section (95,000 acres versus the South Unit's 46,000 acres, but with one-fifth the annual visitation per NPS counts) — the 14-mile Scenic Drive ends at Oxbow Overlook 800 ft above the Little Missouri River meander, and the bison herd here roams freely across the road grade, making early-morning drive timing essential. Juniper Campground inside TR North Unit accepts rigs to 40 ft on first-come basis (50 sites, no hookups), the only developed campground in the unit; the campground typically fills by 2pm on summer Saturdays. Watford City (population 6,207) carries the only big-box retail (Cash Wise grocery, Runnings, fuel stations) between Williston and Dickinson — staging fuel and propane here is non-negotiable, as the next options west are 50+ miles on ND-200. The Little Missouri National Grassland surrounding TR North Unit allows USFS dispersed camping at 14-day limit, but active drilling tracts limit accessible road segments — the Medora Ranger District publishes weekly closure updates worth consulting before committing to a backroad route.