The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
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Do you suppose there is scientific evidence as to why unusual animals are showing up in parts of North Dakota, or is it pure coincidence? The most obvious of these would be mountain lions, sometimes called cougars or pumas. There was a time not so long ago that any state or federal wildlife officials denied that lions were roaming around the state. Back in my Minot Daily News days, someone called me to Garrison to show me mountain lions paw prints in the snow. I took numerous photographs and...
After going through a couple of major technological changes in my journalism career as well as other changes observed, I have to wonder if it’s making us lazy? And since the pandemic, work at home has become “a thing.” People who have the right jobs don’t even go to work anymore. They stay at home and knock out their job on a computer. I can certainly say that life for a journalist has gotten much easier since the early 1960s when the lin-o-type was the way to get the paper published. Today,...
During the 1860s the Civil War took priority for nearly all Americans. It tore the nation apart for the better part of four years and left wounds that lasted for decades. But the Civil War wasn’t the only history happening at that time. Dakota Territory was established in 1861 with scattered military forts to protect settlers and the Great Sioux Uprising took place in 1862. More than a decade later, on June 25, 1876, the Battle of the Little Bighorn unfolded, which remains one of the most a...
Editor’s note: This article is reprinted from the Jan. 20, 1997, edition of the Cavalier County Republican in Langdon. I wouldn’t do this now, at my age, but back then, I was hell bent on getting my newspaper to its readers. Right in the middle of the fourth blizzard of the season, a decision had to be made. Usually the Republican is printed at 8 a.m., Friday in Grafton. But seeing how a blizzard with dangerous wind chills was howling through the state, I woke up Friday morning thinking we would...
Many of you have probably already begun to plan for your 2023 vacation. If you intend to stay in North Dakota, spend some extra time looking at the map. It’s interesting to note there are many communities with the same name as counties. The odd thing about it though, is that a lot of communities that have the same name as counties, are not in the same county. I can think of six that are: Grand Forks, Pembina, Rolette, Bottineau, Bowman and LaMoure. To begin this oddity, let’s start in Cav...
I was at my desk one day at The Kenmare News and the telephone rang. It was Karen Pauls of CBC-TV in Winnipeg. She was calling to ask me if I knew anything about some Nigerians who were hospitalized in Kenmare. I hadn’t heard about such a thing and my first question to her was, “How do you know that?” Karen’s reply, “Word gets around.” Needless to say I was quite surprised, but then got to thinking she must know people in Canada Customs and Border Protection who mentioned it. Regardless,...
I was watching the CBS Evening News recently and Roxana Saberi gave a report on the World Cup from Doha, Qatar. I don’t normally watch the CBS Evening News but that name and face rang a bell. It took a minute to recall who she is. If you don’t know or remember, she is from North Dakota and has quite a story. Often times when people from North Dakota become famous, they’re athletes, actors, politicians or business executives. Saberi, who grew up in Fargo, is arguably the best journalist to come...
Everyone who is aware of North Dakota’s history knows that Pembina is a unique community for several reasons. Most notably, it was the first place in our state that was settled and that was in 1797. It wasn’t part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, but was, at that time, a part of Canada called Prince Rupert’s Land. A fur trading company called the North West Company set up a fort on the north side of the confluence of the Red and Pembina Rivers and that today is the community of Pembina. If yo...
For the first time in the past three years, the Canadian Pacific Railway’s actual Holiday Train is returning to the steel rail across the U.S. and Canada. Because of Covid 19, the past two years have been virtual holiday trains that quite frankly didn’t hold a candle to the real thing. So it’s been announced, the performers have been named and the schedules released. Once again, the train will make six stops in North Dakota As Holiday Train public affairs points out, the concerts are free....
The Sunday before that incredible football game between the Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills, I listened to the national anthem and something occurred to me that made me think of an interesting moment that happened several years ago. I was in Winnipeg on business and there happened to be a football game in town that night so I thought I’d stick around and catch the Winnipeg Blue Bombers against the Sacramento Gold Miners. The Sacramento team was the first Canadian Football League team in t...
When we think of boxing, I’ll bet the first thing that enters your mind is Virgil Hill. And for those who may be fairly new to North Dakota, Virgil Hill grew up in Grand Forks, earned a silver medal in the 1984 Olympics and had a very successful professional career. Hill is the “Roger Maris” of the boxing world and since the summer of 1984, there have been a lot of people who have taken up boxing thanks to Virgil Hill’s success. Anyone who has an interest in boxing can find a club in which t...
When people say they did something on their bucket list it usually means going to Hawaii, buying a BMW or running in the Boston Marathon. For me, one of those bucket list items has been much different. It was implementing a radio wave propa-gation phenomenon called passive reflection, sometimes referred to as passive reception. In most cases this is done in radar, microwave and sometimes TV in the mountain west. I decided to do it with FM radio because my situation is such that passive...
As we find ourselves at the end of October and into early November, the growing season has ended and nearly all farmers’ markets have ceased across the state. It’s always a bittersweet day when you attend your last farmers’ market. You’re sad that you won’t be coming back next week, but happy that you’ll be able get a much deserved break. Most of the general population believes that farmers’ market vendors turn off a switch at the end of the season, but that couldn’t be further from the truth....
Most of us know about LaMoure because we’ve either been there or we’re familiar with Loboes sports teams, namely football and volleyball, in recent state tournaments. LaMoure is just like any other small-town county seat in North Dakota. Its economy is based on farming. In fact, R.D. Offutt, synonymous with John Deere, got its start in Lisbon and LaMoure in the late ‘70s. LaMoure has a good school system, a strong Main Street and other attractions like nearby Lake LaMoure and it’s about 100 mile...
In recent years there’s been a lot of bickering about the dumbest things often resulting in long-term animosity among co-workers, married couples, friends and even students. Believe it or not, there are people, in North Dakota, who will argue with you about what kind of tires you should put on your vehicle or whether Italian food is any good. Some of it is just mind boggling. But instead of all that, maybe we should focus on the positive, the glass is half full as it were. And one sterling examp...
This is a continuation from last week about driving on North Dakota’s highways. We have 13 scenic byways and backways and each one of them affords unique natural beauty of its region. Three routes are along the Canadian border, seven are in western North Dakota and three are in the east. A byway is a paved road and a backway is a gravel road. Tourism numbers them so we’ll start with No. 1. Chan SanSan Scenic Backway: South and east of Jamestown, starting in Adrian, this backway highlights the...
Most of us love North Dakota because of the sunsets, fishing, hunting and open roads. I love the open roads. We may not have the longest open road opportunities, but we are certainly up there toward the top. You can look at a map of the state and find long, straight highways just about everywhere. In my opinion, there is nothing better than getting out on the highway, turning up the car stereo and rolling down the hardball. For the past 22 years, I’ve been a 52-mile-per-day commuter, either t...
It isn’t easy to stay in business for 100 years, especially given that in the past century, any business to survive that long had to endure the Great Depression in the 1930s. But there are two businesses that have daily impact on many North Dakota residents and both businesses are radio stations. One of them is CHAB in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and the other is WDAY in Fargo. WDAY was the first radio station to go on the air in North Dakota on May 22, 1922. CHAB, originally called 10AB, p...
For the past several days the news has been dominated by the loss of Queen Elizabeth II and rightfully so. She was probably the best known person on the face of the earth. And while some people believe it has been overdone, there are plenty of Americans, plenty of North Dakotans, who have been mourning the queen just as the British have been doing. You have to admit, 70 years on the throne is a remarkable achievement, one that quite possibly will never be duplicated. What struck me was the day...
Now that harvest is in full swing, a lot of things come to mind, but there is one thing I doubt many people think about and that is the loss of the old, wooden elevators, sometimes called prairie skyscrapers. On Sunday, we made a trip to Bismarck to purchase a lawn mower and went through the community of Coleharbor. There are, of course, two of the original structures still standing tall against a backdrop of canola, barley and wheat. These prairie icons are quickly disappearing. There are...
Some locals in the Carpio area still talk about an explosion on a nearby farm that happened 100 years ago on Aug. 31. This was no ordinary explosion like you would think. It wasn’t gasoline and it wasn’t spontaneous combustion. This bomb went boom when 500 pounds of steam in a threshing crew boiler caused the boiler to blow up, sending debris all over the neighborhood and killing two men working on the boiler. According to an account in the Aug. 31, 1922 edition of the Renville County Far...
A woman with four young children stopped by the farmers’ market last week and she said they had just moved to North Dakota from Louisiana. “From hurricanes to blizzards,” she said. But, she seemed happy to be in Minot and her kids were relaxed and appeared to be having fun. As our conversation continued, she asked myself and my intern what there is to do around here? Of course, our answers centered around the usual things to do; high school sports, fishing on the lakes, traveling to touri...
If you don’t know or understand French, let me clarify what this headline means. Simply put, it’s “stop the sugar.” As mentioned in the past, this weekly column is mostly about events happening in North Dakota, or the surrounding states or provinces. This week I feel compelled to write about sugar, or “sucre” in French. A few nights ago after packing products for the farmers’ market, I had some odd shaped cucumbers left over so I decided to make a cucumber salad since these cucumbers did...
A kidnapping that was solved last week received little attention in the U.S. media, but had possible implications for North Dakota and Montana. It certainly did in South Dakota because that is where two children, a brother and sister were found safe. A man named Benjamin Moore, a known sex offender who has served prison time in Canada, and his common law wife, kidnapped 7-year-old Luna Potts and her 8-year-old brother Hunter in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, a small town of 1,600 near Swift Current...
What happens when a group of 20 somethings with nothing to do get together? They have a party. That’s what a group of us in Edgeley did on March 16, 1981. But this was no ordinary party. Yes, it was 41 years ago, but I still think about this party a lot and all the positive energy that made it a success. The first unusual thing about our party was that it was held on a Monday night and it was limited to a guest list of 10. You can about imagine the reactions when everyone found out we were h...
