The population is growing so fast it's hard to keep track. Brad Hancock, the city manager for Roosevelt, said that water connections in his town and surrounding countryside have doubled since 2004 — from 1,200 to 2,400.

"Our infrastructure is stretched to the limit. We've got people living in tents," he said. "There might be a few high-end homes for sale, but anything affordable is gone as soon as it's on the market."

But for all the growth, crime isn't up.

"Nobody has the time," smiled Hancock. "Everybody's busier than all get out."

Oil field workers, who run the gamut from manning the drills to driving water trucks to serving as roustabout gofers, work long hours — seven-day, 12-hour-a-day shifts followed by seven days off is typical — and make healthy wages, anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000 a year. And no one asks for a college degree.

It's not the basin's first boom. There was a peripheral oil boom in the 1940s, just after World War II, when oil was discovered nearby in Rangeley, Colo. Then in the 1970s, the Uinta Basin had its very own boom, coinciding with the Arab oil embargo.

But then the price of crude dropped, most of the wells were capped, and that boom went bust.

Carolyn Duke remembered the previous heydays when I arrived in Vernal and checked into her motel.

Carolyn has owned the 44-unit Antlers Motel on Main Street for 63 years — since 1945.

She remembered when the last oil boom filled all her rooms in the 1970s. She also remembered when it bottomed out in 1985 and Vernal had 800 homes in bankruptcy foreclosure.

"The motel made $243,000 for the whole year," she said. "I'd have been shut down if I hadn't owned the place outright."

Now, she makes that much in a month and a half.

"This is by far the biggest yet," she said. "It's growing so fast, it's scary."

Especially if you need a place to sleep.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.