Category Archives: Cool

2007-2008 Almanac of ND Oddities (no, I’m not listed)

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Last week I got the opportunity to talk briefly with William “Jack” Jackson, the author of several books about North Dakota. I picked up a copy of his latest book, the 2007-2008 edition of his Almanac of North Dakota Mysteries and Oddities. It was a fun read, especially for one who loves local history.

North Dakota has got plenty of interesting, humorous, and just plain outrageous tales in its history. For instance, it was a North Dakotan who coined the term “Flying Saucer” as he spotted a group of them near his airplane above Mount Rainier. A North Dakotan sentenced to death in New York turned out to be a German Shepherd. In Hankinson, a young boy survived with only a bruise on his nose after being run over by over 60 rail cars back in 1908. There’s plenty more where this came from!

You can find out fun stories like the Burleigh farmer who walked 28 miles to catch a train to a checkers tournament, or sad stories like the great flue epidemic of the early 1900s, which killed thousands of North Dakotans. The stories vary, and there’s something in this book for everyone.

If you’re a fan of North Dakota history, you owe it to yourself to talk to Mr. Jackson. Unfortunately he does not have a kiosk set up at Gateway Mall now that the holiday season is winding down, but his work is available at Barnes & Noble. He’s got eight books out, the majority of them about North Dakota.

The next book of his I want to investigate more closely is Unbelievable Dakota People – the Good, Bad, Bold & Ugly. It’ll be interesting to see who falls into the last category!

Inspiration for the rock

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Earlier this month I stumbled upon this painted rock northeast of Bismarck with a patriotic message on it. Thanks to Mike G. for emailing me to let me know that this was likely inspired by another well-known painted rock near Greenfield, Iowa.

This rock is painted annually with a different patriotic theme by a young man named Ray “Bubba” Sorenson. More pictures of the rock and a brief description are given here.

In my opinion, both rocks are inspiring. It doesn’t matter if one resembles another, and I doubt Bubba would be offended. The bigger picture is that people are taking the time to put their patriotism out there for all to see and remind the rest of us as well.

“Bubba” has a website promoting his artwork at www.bubbazartwork.com if you’re interested. It doesn’t feature the rock as prominently as the other site, but it does showcase other work he does.

If anyone’s interested, I can post directions to the rock I found here in Bismarck. That is, if I can find it again. I don’t remember which road it’s on exactly, but its GPS coordinates are 46 degrees, 52.023 minutes north by 100 degrees, 42.242 minutes west.

Jack Frost strikes…with spikes

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I had originally intended to drive out along Apple Creek to try taking pictures of pretty frosty trees. Then I formulated a different plan: run over to the cross country ski trail between Bismarck and Mandan! But sadly, the trees along that path didn’t have any frost clinging to them.

It was back to plan A, although it was nearly dark, when I came along this lonely barbed wire fence east of Bismarck. The frost on this barbed wire came in the form of long, spiky formations. I got out of the truck to visually inspect the fence, leaving my camera on the seat. Once I got a good look at the fence, however, I literally dashed back to get my gear and take a bunch of cool photos such as the one above.

It’s getting late now so I’m only going to post the one, but who knows…maybe one of the other photos of the fence or posts will make its way into a future entry.

Greatest Christmas display in Bismarck-Mandan, 2006

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UPDATE:I brought this post back up to the top of the page and added some more photos because Paul Schaff is going to be on the PH Phactor on KFYR AM 550 radio – Thursday, December 7th at 8:15am. Tune in at 8 and go see this Christmas display!

Now’s the time of year when carloads of Bismarck-Mandan residents get together and troll around our fair cities in search of eye-catching Christmas displays. It’s even so popular that local limousine services offer their services to drive you around to the more popular neighborhoods!

Obviously neighborhoods like Northview Lane come immediately to mind, but one house you might not know about really beats ’em all. I’m talking about Paul Schaff’s house, in the far southwest corner of Mandan.

I know about this house because it’s within spittin’ distance of my parents’ house, on a hill overlooking Fort Lincoln school. This is the view of the house from behind…yeah, that’s right: these folks are serious! I took this picture from the schoolyard below.

In years past I remember there even being a musical ornament of some sort, so we’d have to turn down the sounds of Charlie Brown Christmas and roll our windows down as well. I didn’t hear anything like that last night as Stacy and I took a drive past the house.

To get to this house, you need only find West View Lane in southwest Mandan. Let me make it easy: Head south on Highway 1806. Cross the bridge and keep going, as if you were going to Fort Lincoln State Park. At the top of the first big hill is an intersection with 19th Street. Take a right on 19th and follow it until you come to a 4-way stop sign at 8th Avenue SE. Take a left and pass Fort Lincoln School, and you can’t miss the house. From there it’s just a matter of taking a couple of right-hand turns to find them at the end of the road.

This is my absolute favorite time of the year. Sure, I can’t go out on the motorcycles without spiked tires (which I’ve done) and it’s a lot colder to go walkabout with my camera… but driving around snowy roads with Vince Gauraldi playing in my truck is the absolute best feeling I get in Bismarck-Mandan all year long. With that in mind, I’ll be posting more Christmas sights here. They’re even better when shared.

Geocaching

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Yep, my wife and I have a new hobby. It’s called Geocaching, and it’s a blast…in a nerdy sort of way. It goes a little something like this:

You go to the Geocaching website and find a cache near your location. Then you grab your trusty GPS receiver and head out to find the cache. But for many of the caches, that’s just the start.

Many of the hunts on the site are “multi” caches, involving multiple stages. For instance, you may find a cache at the first set of coordinates that contains a clue for the second location. It may be a “virtual” cache, which means you need to look for visual clues at the coordinates and use them to find the next location. In any case, it’s fun.

Once you’ve found a cache, there’s a written log inside each one as well as some miscellaneous trinket items. It’s customary to leave something of your own and perhaps take something from the cache as well. There are little items called “Travel Bugs” that you take and place in the next cache you find. Then you go back to geocaching.com and mark the cache as found, report on the bug if you found or placed one, and discuss the cache. You can also report a missing or damaged cache and read comments by other people who’ve found it.

I’ve always wanted a nice GPS unit and this was a major reason why. Even better, it’s something my wife and I can enjoy together. There’s a guy with the handle “Agent 6” who has written some really entertaining caches involving North Dakota history. We’ve done a couple of them and they’re really neat…especially if you love this area like I do.

So yeah, Jason…you were right. One of those caches led us up to Grant Marsh’s gravestone. For the rest of you, who might not know what Geocaching is, I hope I’ve been an enlightenment. I also hope to have convinced you to try it for yourself. And just in case the photo above makes you wonder if I always go geocaching at night, wearing a suit…no. Neither. It was just a good opportunity for the photo.

Hawk a-hunting

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I was on my way from work to pick up a Green Mill pizza last night when…what? Yes, as a matter of fact I *do* take the long way. Okay, let me start over. I was on my way from my office east of Bismarck to the Green Mill by way of the Briardale area, or thereabouts. The sky looked like it was particularly suited for a shot of the blockhouses from Fox Island, so I began to work my way back there when I saw this: a hawk getting ready for dinner.

I’m not sure what the unfortunate furry creature was, other than dinner. This hawk had caught it just outside of its burrow and made short work of it. It didn’t take long for the razor sharp beak or talons to slice this meal into hastily gobbled strips. Either this was a particularly tasty meal, or a particularly hungry hawk, because he was afraid neither of my truck nor myself approaching on foot. He was already fewer than twenty feet from the road, and it wasn’t a high traffic area, so he felt comfortable sticking around to finish his meal.

I could say that I have a way with birds…but I doubt that’s true for hawks. Every time I get near one and get my camera ready, they bolt. I’ve chased great blue herons, pelicans, and hawks over the year and a half since I bought my camera…and only had marginal success. This gracious hawk gave me my big break as he let me approach. I slowly worked my way closer…

and closer…enough to see that he had some ketchup or something around his beak…

and that was about enough. He’d finished his dinner and I was about six feet away. We sat and looked at each other for several minutes before we’d both had enough. I stood, he hopped over into the bushes along the river, and we parted ways…he across the river by flight, me to the Green Mill by big knobby tires.

Now, if I can just get him to give a reference to the pelicans and herons for me…

Now if I could just find a way to bolt it to my motorcycle

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I wonder if they make a Suzuki or Kawasaki interface kit? This engine is on display at the Fargo Air Museum, which I visited after a freelance job recently. I believe this particular engine may have come from an F-4, but that’s just a guess. When I went to NDSU they flew F-4s in Fargo, and I was able to get some extremely fun time on/in one. I haven’t been any closer to an F-16 than your average airshow patron, however.

There are lots of other engines, planes, and memorabilia to explore at this museum, including a library of aviation books and periodicals. There are plenty of aviation geeks on hand, too. I use the term “geek” in a good sense…there are motorcycle geeks, photography or video geeks, and many other kinds of geeks. We can spot each other a mile away. Geeks tend to know as much about their field of interest as an avid sports fan, and can rattle off airplane facts as if they were quarterback stats.

I’ve wanted to visit this museum forever and never took the opportunity. So, when the TV station I was working for got me a hotel room for an extra night, we ran around Fargo and played for an extra day. Yes, I took my wife with so she could hang out with other TV wives while we were broadcasting college football. That made the weekend into a paid vacation of sorts!

Make the best of what you’ve got

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Somewhere downtown, far from a patch of grass in any direction, sits this little alley oasis. Nestled between two old buildings, this area provides someone with a nice cozy place to relax. There’s a nice mountainous water scene painted on the backdrop, a comfy bench…not bad for a makeshift backyard!

We tend to think that everyone in our state has a big patch of lawn or a deck at their disposal; that simply isn’t true. For those who live in downtown apartments in Bismarck or other towns, having a place to sit outside and relax may require a trip to a nearby park. In this case, someone’s creativity has resulted in a place to at least sit outside and get some air…even if it’s surrounded by brick on most sides.

Something you don’t see in Bismarck every day

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I love Ferrari automobiles. Cars as a general rule are pretty lame and boring, but not those fancy Italian machines. So when a guy is out taking pictures and spots a bright yellow 355 Spyder sitting there, that’s an event. Not only are such cars a little rare in western North Dakota, that yellow is very eye-catching.

Of course, even driving around in the truck with my open camera bag on the passenger seat can’t prepare me for every picture. There was a time in Sibley Park where I glanced over to see an owl taking off with a snake in its claws…there just wasn’t time to get the camera steady before he’d flown off. The same situation happened with this Italian machine.

This is the picture I actually got. Street signs are quite useful but tend to get in the way whenever a guy tries taking pictures downtown. No worries…it’s removable quickly and easily. But with all the buzz about Photoshopped pictures in the mainstream media these days, I like to be open about mine. There’s a great sense of satisfaction in getting a unique photograph, and I’d hate to have any speculation about whether any of mine are real. There are plenty of sites you can go to for doctored photographs…this is not one of them.

What a drag…line

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So I found myself standing at the bottom of the boom of a BIG dragline crane yesterday. While a piece of equipment on board was being serviced, the gentleman up those steps is inspecting specific sections on the boom. This is a regular safety procedure, and I guess he figured this would also be a good use of the momentary downtime. I was *almost* crazy enough to say I’d follow him. The problem with those grated steps isn’t going up them, it’s coming down. They’re hard to see if you’re not used to them, and it’s hard not to focus on the ground below. And this picture may not convey it, but that is a very steep upward angle. Yikes!

See how steep that is? And it’s enormous, too. The house of the crane itself is about three or four times the size of my house. It certainly dwarfs the Suburbans parked on either side, doesn’t it? I also took some shots from the top of the back end of the housing, but pictures just do NOT do justice to the scale of this thing. And it isn’t even the biggest one in the state, to my knowledge.