Windfall

Erika Bolstad embarks on a journey to uncover the hidden history of her great-grandmother, Anna, a homesteader in the North Dakota prairies who was committed to an asylum under mysterious circumstances in the early 1900s. Bolstad's quest begins after her mother reveals inherited mineral rights to Anna's land, a legacy suddenly made valuable by the Bakken oil boom. As a journalist with a focus on environmental issues, Bolstad grapples with the ethical complexities of this potential family wealth against the backdrop of climate change and the impact of the oil industry on the American West.

Through meticulous research and travels to North Dakota, Bolstad reconstructs Anna's life and explores the boom-and-bust cycles that have shaped the unforgiving prairie landscape. This reported memoir intertwines a personal family narrative with broader questions about American ambition, the exploitation of natural resources, and the enduring definition of wealth.