Below you will find a post from Lillian’s blog, Wild Dakota Woman. It is the substance of a letter she sent to our three legislators in Bismarck’s District 35, Sen. Sean Cleary and Reps. Bob Martinson and Karen Karls, in support of the state getting the Military Wing of the North Dakota Heritage Center back on track.
I haven’t check yet to see how our legislators voted today, but the Legislature, before it adjourned, passed the bill to get construction going again and pay past-due bills. Hooray for them!
Here, read what Lillian had to say to them, and if you click on the link about halfway down, you’ll see her interesting contribution to the North Daktoa Archives, her family history.
An Open Letter on the Military Gallery and the ND Heritage Center
Special Session of the ND Legislature September 2026: SB2407
Sep 04, 2026
While I realize that the Assembly of the 2026 Special Session is likely acting upon SB2407 as early as today, I want to go on record on this.
As Representative Martinson knows, I am the daughter of Garland Crook, who was on Omaha Beach on D-Day, in Korea, and in Vietnam. In fact, as a child, we lived in Okinawa during the Vietnam war. Dad retired in 1970 at Fort Bliss, TX, at which time we moved back to ND to live on the Slope County farm and ranch where my late Mother was born and raised. Dad is now buried at the ND Veterans Cemetery after living a remarkable 90+ year life. Since the death of my parents, working in concert with my siblings, we have donated their items to the collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, including most recently their papers. In those papers is a personal note written to me upon the death of my father by Rep. Martinson and his wife, Dr. Jodi Roller (whose father was also on the beaches of Normandy). Here is the link for those papers (which include the note from Martinson and Roller).
For the last four years or so, I have been a volunteer at the ND Heritage Center (both in the Archives and at the Front Entrance). It has been my honor. I visit with thousands of visitors of all ages, all walks of life, from North Dakota and all over the world. Many of these people go out of their way to visit the ND Heritage Center and return again and again. The staff keep careful records. In my capacity as a volunteer, alongside many other volunteers, I have also had the opportunity to observe dedicated professionals who work for the SHSND as well as interns and other temporary staff. And I never fail to be impressed by the staff, not just at the ND Heritage Center, but also at the SHSND sites across ND. This has been true for me since long before I moved to Bismarck and long before I became a volunteer, and has been true under leadership for many decades, including the team now. From the custodians to the security staff to the cafe workers to the workers in the gift store to the curators to the Directors, including Dr. Bill Peterson: each day they greet visitors cheerfully and expertly guide them in their journeys experiencing the history of North Dakota.
Since I was a tot, thanks to my late Mother, myself and my siblings have been museum nerds. We go out of our way to visit museums. I have visited museums in DC, the World War II Museum in New Orleans, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, and museums in every other state of the USA, including Alaska and Hawaii. When I visited the United Kingdom, I visited so many museums that I lost count. One moment stands out in my visit to the UK. Before I left, I said goodbye to my father who was by then living in a Mandan nursing home, with the knowledge that while I was there he might die. While I was not able to travel to Normandy, I did travel to the places on the British coast where the soldiers and sailors sailed across the English Channel to France. From where I stood, I could see France. And when I returned home, my Dad was still alive and I could show him the photos I took and hear more of his stories, his stories that he didn’t talk much about until he was quite an old man. And I could show those photos to my Mom, who was living in Slope County listening to the D-Day news on the radio with her parents.
Please forgive me for not writing this sooner. I was in attendance at the opening of the Special Assembly of Tuesday and I did listen to Governor Armstrong deliver his address and then I attended the meeting of the Joint Committee on Appropriations and listened carefully to all of the testimony. In fact, I was wearing my late Dad’s Army ring, something I don’t do very often. Because the day had been long for everyone, I chose to not testify, however, over the years I have spoken in person with many of you on the topic of the funding for the SHSND, in support of the funding.
I believe that the record shows that the Military Museum project began during former Governor Burgum’s time and I know from the record that the Lt. Governor of his second term served on one of the committees. I also know many of the people who serve on the various SHSND Boards. Because I am a volunteer at the Heritage Center, I was invited to attend the initial reception that was held on the rooftop of the nearby bank building for the project. Since then, I attended a reception that was held at the Heritage Center, along with my brother, Thomas Crook, retired U.S. Navy, who lives and works in Fargo, and our sister, who lives in Mandan. I was also in attendance at one of Governor Armstrong’s Cabinet Meetings (it might have been his first), when he spoke movingly of his ancestor’s service in the US Navy.
In closing, I am a longtime taxpayer of ND and I don’t disagree with the notion of accountability and frugality. On that topic, it seems to me that OMB and lawyers who work for the State of ND, as well as the ND Legislators and other ND leaders, are going to need to work on that moving forward. I’ve listened to and read many accounts of that very intent. Good for all of you.
I firmly agree with what I heard as testimony from many legislators that this is a building on the grounds of the ND Capital, the same as every other building that has been built since long before I was born, in the time when my Slope County great-grandparents and grandparents were first arriving in ND.
Below is a photo taken of my brother, now retired Senior Chief Thomas Crook, taken on the flight deck of one of many aircraft carriers on which he served.
Please fully fund the SHSND, its staff, its projects, and its facilities. Now and in the future.
Lillian Crook
The Prairie Blog 