Around the State: August 14, 2023

The counties and cities within the state of North Dakota hold many interesting news stories.

Here are just a few of the feature stories that others are reading in communities around the state.

New hire aware of questions about Alaska

The Divide County School District’s new director of special education, Jeannie Brickley, brings 19 years of experience both as a teacher and as an administrator to her role.

But she is also well aware of the questions raised about her joining the district from Selawik, Alaska.

“I saw the letter,” Brickley said.

That letter, unsigned, was sent according to Brickley, to every single board member and to The Journal. Along with the letter, an article from an Alaska newspaper outlines serious criminal charges against Brickley’s husband, Lance.

Lance Brickley faces murder charges stemming from an incident where authorities claim he shot an individual inside the Brickley home then tried to hide the crime by dumping the body elsewhere.

Jeannie Brickley was not in the home at the time.

Lance Brickley is currently in custody, awaiting trial.

Jeannie said the situation has been “rough. Rough on everybody.”

In the immediate aftermath of the crime’s discovery, Jeannie Brickley, who was employed as principal at Davis-Roth Memorial School in Selawik, left her position voluntarily.

That environment deteriorated to the point that Alaska state troopers put Brickley and her son under protection.

“We had 20 minutes to pack up and be escorted for our own safety,” said Brickley.

“We were put up in a hotel for three days while they sorted things out, and under guard with death threats and all kinds of ‘wonderful’ comments.

To date, Brickley has not been charged with anything by Alaska authorities. Nor, she said, does she expect to be.

(Story by Brad Nygaard, the Journal, Crosby)

Second life for landmark

What once was a picture-perfect spot in the Turtle Mountains is coming back to life.

The “Berginski Barn” along Highway 43 just west of the turn to Lake Upsilon has provided a background for countless scenic photographs.

The structure, built more than a century ago, slowly succumbed to the harsh elements and was nearly all collapsed into itself.

“I remember the day it happened,” said Gail Berginski, whose family lived on the property in the early 1960s. “In 2010 the middle of the roof gave way and once that went, it slowly caved in.”

About a year later, while Berginski was in the hospital for a cancer treatment, more of the structure fell and about three years ago it was all the way down.

Lately, however, the lost landmark attracted some local attention. Kay Haas, a cousin to Berginski, is working along with her son, Todd, and other volunteers to bring the barn back to life.

Gail said when she was about five-years-old when people would stop by the home to take pictures and even paint the structure.

“They would see that red barn and, particularly in the fall, it was just a little more beautiful,” Gail said.

“They would sit in the ditch with an easel and just paint.”

Gail said the spot became such a popular picture opportunity that family and friends would come upon renderings of the barn all across the country.

(Story by Jason Nordmark, the Turtle Mountain Star)

Kruckenberg releases third book

Having told the absorbing and deeply personal stories of his own family and their lives in northeastern Mercer County in two previous books, an author with local ties now turns his pen to the larger history of the region and the legacy of storytelling about its settlement.

“On Fertile Ground” is the third book about “Big Bend Country” by Larry Lee Kruckenberg, who now lives with his wife Roene in Cheyenne, Wyo. At 500 pages and over 100 chapters, it is a thorough and engaging look into the world of Big Bend Country in the period from 1873 through 1899.

Big Bend Country broadly extends from the Missouri River in the north to the Knife River to the south, east to the Missouri where it turns towards Bismarck and west to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, but is also used in a sense that includes lands on the other side of these rivers.

While Kruckenberg is the author of “On Fertile Ground”, he is also named as the compiler.

“Rather than me trying to interpret what things were like, I decided to do a deep dive into the newspapers, because I figured the important things that were happening at the time would be published in them,” he said.

Kruckenberg said this gives readers a chance to read what happened in the actual articles of that time, from the words of people who actually lived through these events.

(Story by Daniel Arens, the Hazen Star)

One year after the storm

One year ago on August 15, 2022, the little town of Ruso became a big deal.

Three tornadoes hit the area, two of which clocked speeds of over 100 miles per hour.

The first tornado occurred four miles east of Ruso at about 5:08 p.m. It was short lived, lasting about one minute.

The second tornado developed about two miles south of Ruso at about 5:10 p.m. and traveled slowly south. Shortly after developing it snapped hardwood trees in a shelterbelt and blew over and destroyed an animal shelter. The tornado then dissipated about four miles south of Ruso at about 5:35 p.m. Based on the damage done this tornado was rated EF-1 and from that wind speeds were estimated to be around 110 mph.

The third tornado developed at about 5:30 p.m. This was about five miles south of Ruso. This third tornado also moved south and about six miles south of Ruso it destroyed three small wooden granaries, damaged farm equipment by flopping over a large seed cart. The tornado then dissipated at about 5:50 p.m.

Based on the damage done, this tornado was rated EF-2 and from that wind speeds were estimated to be around 120 mph.

In 2022, 16 tornadoes touched down in North Dakota. Of those, three were in McLean County, which also marked the most western tornadoes which occurred in the state last year.

According to information from the National Weather Service, McLean County saw 45 tornadoes from 1950 through 2022.

(Story by Tyson Matthews, the McLean County Independent)