The term fast growth may conjure images of tech companies with sleek offices and catered lunches. But there are plenty of growing, thriving businesses out there in the real world, getting their hands dirty. Here are six from the Inc. 500. Click for more

Let's Get Physical

A Hard Day's Night

Target Logistics, No. 305

 

Every day, roughly a quarter of a million barrels of oil are extracted from North Dakota's Bakken shale formation. When these oil-field workers call it quits, they head to the Bear Paw Lodge, a crew camp in Williston, North Dakota, run by Target Logistics. The Boston-based company assembled this 686-bed modular lodge, which has a fitness center, saunas, and a 24-hour dining room serving up steak and lobster. "You've got a 250-pound man burning 5,000 calories a day out there," says founder and CEO Brian Lash. "Our job is to give him a five-star meal and a pillow-top mattress." The $45.8 million company operates 13 lodges for oil, gas, mining, and construction clients in North America, including Halliburton.



Christine Lagorio is a writer, editor, and reporter whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Village Voice, and The Believer, among other publications. She is executive editor of Inc.com. @Lagorio