About a month ago I agreed to walk 100 miles in the month of April to raise awareness of cancer and the deadly toll it is taking on us, and to raise money for the American Cancer Society. My goal: $250, to be donated by me and my friends. I had the help of a … Continue reading 102.4 Miles For Cancer Research

As you’ve driven down I-94 to Medora for the last dozen or so years, you’ve seen a couple of yellow signs just inside the national park boundary fence a few miles east of Medora that say “Land for Sale.” Until I found out the story behind them, they gave me some pause. Hmmm. The park … Continue reading 23 Crossings

At about 9:15 Tuesday morning, April 4, 2023, in the Billings County Courthouse in Medora, North Dakota, Billings County commissioners voted to go into executive session and told the general public attending the meeting to leave the room. Well, two of the three commissioners—Steve Klym and Lester Iverson—voted to do that. A third, Dean Rodne, … Continue reading $20,000 An Acre!

A letter to a whole bunch of really good friends. Dear Friends, The nightmare is over. My lawyer says I can talk about it now. Some of you know about it already. Most don’t. Here’s the short version. About a year and a half ago there was a knock on my front door. A kind … Continue reading Thank You

On New Year’s Eve, 1940, Paul Southworth Bliss, a veteran of the Great War in Europe and a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, took his service revolver from its holster in his small apartment at the Kansas City, Missouri, YMCA, put the pistol to his head, and pulled the trigger. He was just 51 … Continue reading Where We’ve Been, What We’ve Been Doing, And Why.

I’m pretty sure these phone calls have already happened. Rrring! Rrring! “Hello, Governor’s Office, this is Doug Burgum.” “Hello, Governor, this is Bill Peterson over at the State Historical Society. They’re telling me I have to decide if I should sign off on letting the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tear down their historic bridge … Continue reading ‘The Buck Stops Here’ (At The Governor’s Desk)

Do you know some young person, just starting, or just ready to start, a professional career in North Dakota? Someone who’s a good communicator (maybe a journalism degree), and is interested in the outdoors (especially North Dakota’s Bad Lands)? Well, I’ve got an idea for them. I’ve been a member of an organization for more … Continue reading How About A Job In The Bad Lands?

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about some bad bills in the North Dakota Legislature that attempt to ban books from our pubic libraries. One, SB 2123, was a goofy bill that just removed libraries from the list of places “dirty books” are allowed to be displayed. It was such a bad bill that … Continue reading A Letter From A Reader

Elections, as they say, have consequences. What’s been going on in Billings County, North Dakota, elections has been pretty consequential. Billings County is an important place. It's home to the Bad Lands, Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. And the Little Missouri State Scenic River. More about elections in a minute. You’ve been reading here … Continue reading Here We Go Again. The ‘Bridge To Nowhere’ Is Back.

It started last weekend. I began receiving weird text messages from unknown phone numbers outside the 701 area code. I didn’t think about it much the first time, but then they kept on coming, sometimes three a day. I ignored them, like I had been told to when I got my first cellphone. By the … Continue reading Dn’t Rspnd To Thse Txts!