Around the State: November 18, 2024

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.

Local cattleman lost 90 percent of hay bales

A bale fire happened recently in Dunseith where a local cattleman saw the loss of around 90% of his hay for his cattle this winter.

Mike Gillis, a cattleman north of Dunseith, stated that he lost around 1,400 bales out of the 1,550 bales he collected from haying this summer.

The event happened on Monday, Oct. 28, through the exhaust of one of his machines while working with the bales at 5:30 in the evening. With a breeze that evening, the fire spread quickly even though Gillis placed separation between the bales when he stored them as a safety precaution.

Fire departments from Belcourt, Dunseith, Rolla, Rolette and St. John were called to the fire. Gillis' neighbor David Evans also assisted in the fire by helping Gillis move bales away from the fire.

Those involved were only able to save 150 bales. The loss of the hay bales is estimated at a cost of $50,000.

As for the 150 bales they were able to save, Gillis is uncertain if his cattle will be able to eat the bales because they have smoke damage.

(Story by Scott Wagar, the Bottineau Courant)

Man loses his farm to Garrison Dam

Bud and Gloria Henne, a couple in the Benedictine Living Center in Garrison, have been married for over 70 years. They have lived a life devoted to one another, and help each other out whenever needed. Gloria milked 28 cows every day to feed the family, while Bud farmed.

Bud grew up on a farm roughly where the Three-Mile boat ramp is now located. He farmed with his mom and dad until their land was flooded in 1954.

"My farm was right on the edge of where the lake (Lake Audubon) now is," Henne said.

"All of my farmland was where the lake now is, but some of the pastureland my grandson still owns."

After Henne's farmland was flooded, his family did not fight the federal government in court for just-compensation like some families chose to do.

"My parents had little to no education," Henne said. "With no education, going to court was very hard."

When they lost their land, he and his parents had to restart right south of Max.

"My parents had to pay $10 more an acre for land by Max, and that was worse land," Henne said. "We first bought land around my new farm, then we started to buy other places."

Henne's son and grandson now farm full-time on that same farm near Max. Their family has come a long way since being forced to relocate in the 1950s.

Henne's story puts in perspective how many lives were changed by the Garrison Dam, and how many farmers never came back from the financial blow they were forced to take.

(Story by Carter A. Hurt, the McLean County Independent)

A discovery leads to museum donation

One Griggs County family has an extensive war history. Lydia Eslinger had eight sons and three daughters, and over the course of 20 years, she saw all eight of her sons be drafted into the U.S. Army. They all survived and returned home, but one of them brought back a couple of items that have recently been donated to the Griggs County Museum in Cooperstown, N.D. Those items are a Nazi flag and a sword.

Deb Dahl of Hannaford told the story of how the flag and sword came to be in America.

After entering a federal building, which was a post office, Emil Eslinger, the oldest son of Lydia Eslinger tore the Nazi flag down that was hanging on the wall and took a German soldier prisoner.

From that capture, he kept the sword, gun and the Nazi flag. After his discharge in 1945, he brought the flag and sword home. His father, David Eslinger, who had immigrated in the early 1900s from Germany, was extremely upset seeing the flag and asked Emil to get rid of it. He folded it and put it in a storage box where it would sit undisturbed for the next 77 years until my uncle gave it to me 2 years ago."

Dahl did research on the flag and contacted the Griggs County Museum.

(Story by Lisa Saxberg, the Griggs County Courier)

Bank of North Dakota refutes allegations

Is the Bank of North Dakota a taxpayer-funded slush fund for the state's elite? This is the shocking question posed to North Dakotans by a provocative recent Gateway Pundit article. Officials for the Bank of North Dakota (BND) have recently answered with a swift and emphatic rejection of these claims posed by Gateway Pundit.

BND President and CEO, Don Morgan, called the article's claims "patently false" and a "twisting of facts" during a recent interview with KTGO Radio News Anchor, Chris Larson.

The article published by Gateway Pundit alleged that the BND, the nation's only state-owned bank, is "corruptly protecting the state's political class with sketchy loans and concealed losses."

One of the specific claims addressed by Morgan, was the allegation that the BND writes off hundreds of millions of dollars in bad loans every year.

All claims were denied by Morgan while he explained their loan process.

(Story by M.K. French, the McKenzie County Farmer)

Hillsboro residents sound off on dog concerns

Nearly a dozen residents turned out for a recent public forum in Hillsboro to share stories about their encounters with roaming and unleashed dogs in the city.

The Hillsboro City Commission set aside an hour of its meeting to learn more about residents' concerns with stray dogs and discuss ways to address the issue.

Two weeks ago, Cindy Wright and her daughter stumbled across roaming dogs four times in seven days while on walks.

"Every time we go for a walk in Hillsboro we encounter dogs running loose," Wright said. "It takes the pleasure out of walking outside ... Somebody is going to get hurt."

Like Wright, Amy Redland said her family members while on walks have run into stray dogs repeatedly in the northwest and southwest sections of Hillsboro.

"I had an incident where I walked outside my garage and there was a dog snarling at me," said Redland, who feared the canine would chase after her children on their way to school.

Near the end of the discussion, Commissioner Paul Geray said his two takeaways from the open house were that residents need to report their dog complaints to authorities and the city and sheriff's deputies may need to be more strict in levying fines to the owners of loose dogs.

City commissioners agreed to revisit the issue.

(Story by Cole Short, the Hillsboro Banner)