Category Archives: Around Bismarck-Mandan

How about a lift?

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I happened to be south of Mandan a couple nights ago and caught the silhouette of one of the ski lifts at Huff Hills against the sunset sky. I don’t know if they run these during the summer, but I would guess that they don’t.

I used to work for mountain operations at Big Sky back in the 80s. For part of that time I ran a ski lift or gondola, depending on the day. Later on I was simply paid to snowboard…not a bad gig if you can get it! Big Sky runs some of their lifts in the summer for hikers and mountain bikers, and while I know some guys like biking Huff Hills, I don’t think they get to take the easy way up the hill.

One of my mountain bike friends heard the metallic sound of something striking his bike frame as he went down the hill out at Huff. In the instant that he looked down, he saw that it was a rattlesnake that had been surprised by his fast descent and struck at his bike. Thankfully the snake hit the bike and not his leg! I wonder if you can chip a fang on titanium…

The Grant Marsh situation

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With all the talk about the need to replace the ailing Memorial Bridge, I hadn’t heard a peep about the good ol’ Grant Marsh lately. That’s why I was surprised to see this nastiness above one of the support columns, near the boat landing. That doesn’t look very healthy, does it?

I did a quick web search to see if there were any reports of this repair, but didn’t come up with anything before having to dash out the door. Thankfully someone’s getting after it. I don’t know how much of that eroded away naturally and how much was chipped away to begin repairs, but the fact that it had crumbled so badly is not very reassuring. It looks like the rest of the support is going to get a treatment as well, judging by the scaffolding.

In retrospect, it probably wasn’t such a great idea to have drainage hammering down on the end of that concrete support over the years. I’d chalk that up to a design problem. The black bandaid hanging there is supposed to help divert things, but I’m sure the damage had already been done long ago. Now it’s a matter of trying to patch it up.

I saw a report on TV many years ago (I think I was still with NBC, actually) that talked about the disrepair of the nation’s bridges. I thought it was a little unsettling then, but with two of Bismarck-Mandan’s major bridges showing such extreme wear I’m between unsettled and alarmed! Thankfully it looks like someone’s on the situation, and we don’t have to deal with the thing collapsing before paying attention to the condition of its supports.

In the mean time, maybe I’ll use the Expressway Bridge. 🙂

Well, it’s official. We need a new slide

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I hope this means we’re getting a new waterpark! I know this is going to be sad news for those who grew up with the water slide at Hillside Park, but it is no longer there. It had aged beyond repair and the kids had figured out how to launch over the side, so it was time for it to go. I guess the pool is staying, though.

This is all that’s left. I have heard talk about people wanting to get an aquatic center like Dickinson has, and that’d be a welcome addition to our list of recreational facilities in this town. For now I guess we’ll have to go to a hotel or the Mandan Community Center and ride the indoor slides, which are much smaller but still fun.

Identify that facade…just don’t drive while looking up, please

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I sometimes bemoan the fact that many of Bismarck-Mandan’s historic buildings are falling to the wrecking ball and bulldozer (and, in some cases, a skidsteer on the second floor!). That’s why it’s important to appreciate them while we’ve got ’em. I haven’t posted many of the photos I have taken of unique local building features, but perhaps I’ll do more of that in the future. This could be akin to my “identify the statue” posts that I have done until I started running out of statues.

I left the building name intact on this one, so it should be pretty easy to find. Can you identify this building?

Someone always kisses the lightpost

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Gateway Avenue is the street that goes past Basin Electric on its way from State Street to 19th Street. At the crest of this hill the road curves to the left a little, and it’s off camber as well. Naturally it becomes very treacherous when icy, as a couple of people found out tonight.

I’ve never made contact with either the lightpost or the tree, but I did discover the danger of this curve early on in my driving career. Thankfully I filed that information permanently in my melon, because it was particularly slick there tonight! In fact, I saw a 4×4 go by all stepped out as they tried to avoid the curb. Unlike the people whose wheel tracks appear in this photo, they were successful. The person who connected with the lightpost left some parts behind!

Out at the boneyard

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In what was perhaps Jonathan’s first photographic trip with his daddy, I captured a photo of the boneyard out at the Mandan Airport on a cold, windy day. Obviously it wasn’t during the super-cold snap we’re experiencing this weekend; I wouldn’t take a baby out in such weather. I think this was about a week ago, when little PJ was visiting his cousins and Jonathan and I took mommy’s new SUV out for a spin.

As you can see by the horizon, it was a pretty bleak and dreary day. I figured that would be a good time to capture this pile of aircraft parts. I took some of the color out of the shot in Photoshop to help the effect.

I’m adding to a boneyard of sorts myself this weekend, one of computer parts. My system drive on my video/graphics workstation in my home office is full, and I have a new stompin’ video card to put in it. That involves prying my computer tower out of its niche in my work area, blowing dust out of it, removing the old system drive and video card, putting in the new ones, and installing EVERYTHING from scratch. Fun.

So far I’ve got the new hard drive and video card installed, a couple of cooling fans replaced as well, and everything blown dust-free. I’ve got Windows re-installed along with the networking essentials: Firefox, Thunderbird, and iTunes. Sunday I’ll start working on my application software.

I have a computer tower with room for lots of hard drives, and I just about have drives A: through Z: now! My workstation has three 200GB drives, one 300GB drive, a 40GB “temporary files” drive, two 300GB external drives, and a 250GB external drive. I have a big server tower in my basement that helps heat the laundry room, too. One can never have too much hard drive space! When working with video and high-resolution photos, most days it’s hard to have enough.

Frosty Sunday

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Sakakawea wasn’t the only one taken aback by the frosty, fogged-in capitol building today. There were plenty of us poking around the grounds, even in the early afternoon. I wanted to make it during the morning hours, but was unable to do so before church. I bolted to the capitol immediately after church, and found that the cold temperatures had kept the frost completely intact. There were a few other people poking around with cameras as well.

Somehow, I imagine this is exactly what it was like to be a pioneer some days…braving bitter cold in search of a better life. Thankfully I had the warm truck in which to warm my frozen fingers, because even a few minutes of working the camera made them painfully cold.

This wrought iron horse was a remarkable sight as well, with the gaps in the re-bar sealed with a frosty glaze. I had all but forgotten this statue, but it caught my eye as I rounded the capitol mall. I actually came back later to try a different technique with this statue, and there were still people taking pictures of it. The effect I wanted was to keep the background out of focus, allowing the horse to stand out a little better. It wasn’t easy; I need to get a neutral density filter. I was unable to keep my aperture wide and still keep a slow enough shutter speed to sync to my external flash. I used a lens that tends to help with depth of field, then exaggerated the blur a little in Photoshop.

Check this out – only one side of the horse is frosted! I got the horse at a funky angle here, and I’m not sure if I like it or not. It was accidental; I was paying more attention to other details at the time, so I could get back in the truck and warm my fingers, and get home to my wife and boys. Little PJ has been spitting up, so she kept the boys home from church this morning. Let’s just call the angle ‘artistic’ and not tell anyone, okay?

I also got some other neat frost pictures near the river, but those can wait until another time. As far as I know, the frost is still out there, since the temperatures are cold enough. How long it will last is anybody’s guess…I’m just glad I was able to get out there with my camera to capture it!

Something wrong with the Beacon?

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I guess I’m going to have to ask around. The past few evenings I’ve noticed that the Weather Beacon is dark. Hopefully it’s not in need of another costly major repair!

I have the honor of having been one of the folks charged with changing the color of the Weather Beacon to reflect the current forecast. In the 1990s when I worked in Master Control at KFYR-TV, the switch box for the Beacon was right behind where I sat at the control board. There were six clunky push buttons on the box, one for each permutation: red, flashing red, white, flashing white, green, and flashing green. The program log for KFYR-TV had occasional reminders throughout the day/night to check the Beacon.

Later on I heard that the control reverted to KFYR radio, and I think there was a span in there where nobody was really controlling it. I think each station thought the other was doing it! That would have been around the time that the radio stations’ headquarters moved out of the Meyer buildings.

I also got to help Save the Beacon back in the 90’s too, as KFYR’s webmaster, but that’s a story for another time.

Out to pasture

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On a lonely little gravel road west of Mandan I found this rig parked in the corner of a field. As anyone visiting this site on a regular basis knows, I’m a sucker for a broken-down farmstead, a windmill, a well, or an old farm implement. I guess it’s part of North Dakota’s charm, although a wistful one at that. In my travels around the periphery of Bismarck-Mandan I’ve found many such sights, more than I’ve posted here. Gradually I’ll let ’em all out!