(Note: This article first appeared in the November, 2022 issue of Dakota Country magazine.) Long ago, way back in the 1970s, I lived in Dickinson, in western North Dakota, and was a writer and editor for The Dickinson Press. My regular working hours were 2-10 p.m., Monday through Saturday. I was a recently returned Vietnam … Continue reading Twin Buttes: Wilderness, and Maybe a Few Sharptails

There’s an election coming. It’s a pretty boring one. In North Dakota, all the Republicans will win, except in Fargo and a few other places in the Red River Valley. And maybe one Democrat in Bismarck. District 35 Senator Tracy Potter. I think District 35 is the only district west of Highway 281 represented by … Continue reading There’s Going To Be An Election. Ho Hum.

(This article is reprinted From the October, 2022, issue of Dakota Country magazine. I know I've written about this before, but it's an important piece of good news about the Bad Lands, and it's worth revisiting.) Okay, I know, I know, I’m not supposed to speak ill of the dead. But I’m going to a … Continue reading Attorneys General – Good Guys And Bad Guys

Friends have been notified that Hal Simons, 73, died at his home last week, after a long battle with cancer. A memorial service is being planned for late October. Hal was a longtime friend, dating back to our newspaper days in the 1970s. He was a member of a loose knit group of friends who … Continue reading Another One Bites The Dust

There’s something almost magical about stepping onto the prairie and knowing that it’s possible—even likely—that you’re the first person who has ever put their foot down on that spot. Ever. One of the places you can do that is on the Long X Divide, near the extreme north end of the North Dakota Badlands. Long … Continue reading The Long X Divide Offers Wilderness Hiking

On a warm summer evening in late August, 1947, young Phyllis Maxine Boehmer Fuglie stood on the platform of a Chicago train station and kissed her husband, Whitey Fuglie, goodbye. Just 22 years old and heavy with child, she boarded a train for North Dakota, where her mother and his mother waited to help her … Continue reading 75

Yesterday I wrote an article about Gary Berube, the fella who writes the right-wing stink letters to the editor to all our state’s papers pretty frequently. I wrote about the hypocrisy of him criticizing the proposal to forgive college loans in a recent letter to The Forum when he had taken a free $20,000 PPP … Continue reading PPP Followup

I’ll make this short and sweet. There’s a fellow over in Mandan named Gary Berube who’s a stockbroker and a slumlord and a frequent right-wing contributor to the state’s newspaper editorial pages. If you read North Dakota’s newspapers, you’ve seen his rants. His most frequent one appeared in Tuesday’s online edition of The Forum. It … Continue reading Glass Houses, Candy And Ice Cream, And Hypocrisy

Drew Wrigley: Case Closed As I write this on Friday, August 26, 2022, it has been exactly 10 years and 27 days since four western North Dakota Counties—Billings, Slope, McKenzie and Golden Valley—filed a lawsuit to try to get access to section line roads inside four parcels of land being protected by the U.S. Forest … Continue reading Bad Lands Updates: Drew Wrigley, Meridian Energy Group, Land For Sale

Saturday will mark the three-week anniversary of the day my friend Darrell fell through a hole in his deck. You’ll recall that I wrote about it a couple days later. And in that story, I asked you to speculate on what Darrell’s last words were as he headed for the deck below. I had already … Continue reading “HE LOST”