North Dakota Holds A Hidden Treasure From 200 Million Years Ago

North Dakota may be best known for its wide-open plains and booming oil industry, but buried deep beneath the surface lies another kind of treasure: an ancient impact crater dating back some 200 million years.

Known as the Red Wing Crater, this geological oddity formed during the Triassic era when a meteorite struck the area that is now McKenzie County, just miles from the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Unlike the iconic Meteor Crater in Arizona, Red Wing is hidden nearly a mile beneath the surface, concealed under layers of Jurassic-era rock. Geologists have had to rely on seismic imaging to detect its roughly 5½-mile-wide structure.

The crater’s location has added a layer of intrigue: it coincides with the heart of North Dakota’s oil boom. Researchers have long noted a curious pattern—ancient impact sites of a certain age sometimes indicate the presence of oil reserves.

Red Wing’s mystery deepens with a provocative 1998 hypothesis from geophysicists David Rowley, John Spray, and Simon Kelley. They suggested the crater might be one of five formed in a rapid multiple-impact event, similar to the Shoemaker-Levy comet strikes on Jupiter in 1994. Other potential sites include Saint Martin crater in Manitoba, Manicouagan in Quebec, Rochechouart in France, and Obolon in Ukraine.

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While the idea that fragments of a comet or clustered asteroids pummeled Earth in quick succession remains debated, Red Wing stands as a fascinating reminder of the forces that shaped the planet long before oil rigs and highways dotted the North Dakota landscape. Hidden beneath the plains, it quietly connects the state to cosmic events from a distant past.