While Continental Resources Inc. proved the Bakken oil play in North Dakota in 2004, it was Lyco Energy Corp. that drilled and completed the first commercially successful, horizontal Bakken producer in Montana in 2000. Bobby Lyle, Lyco’s founder, says that making the play work in Richland County was borne from a good geological idea and some courageous collaboration.

He sold Lyco’s assets there in 2005 to Enerplus Corp. for more than $420 million. Today, his Dallas-based Lyco Holdings Inc. makes private investments in a variety of industries, including oil and ...