I’ve never been able to make it here at 11am on November 11th, the day that Veteran’s Day is always celebrated. Perhaps next winter I’ll be able to post a photo of the raised ND illuminated by the 11 o’clock sun.
There appear to be two clusters of them and will soon total 60 towers in all. They are all accessible by service roads for the curious, but you MUST check in before you go out there. The roads are all marked No Trespassing for visitors who have not checked in.
This picture was taken by moonlight Saturday night from the section line road. While the generators turned by these big boys do make some noise, they are deceptively quiet. Because of that, they’re kinda weird to watch. The 80-foot blades move pretty quickly for something so huge.
Some days you can find them in the corn fields south of Bismarck, other days they’re occupying a sandbar by the marina. Today they’re just hanging out in a field north on River Road. Why fly south when you’ve got all this?
There are only about a half-dozen tombstones remaining at this cemetery, all dating back to the mid to late 1800s. Most are in quite a state of disrepair. The cemetery is maintained, however. I may ask around to find out who…what’s important is that it’s not neglected. In fact, several of the stones have protective fences around them.
One thing I missed on this hike was a stone that lies flat and has all kinds of weird markings on it. I haven’t been out to Greenwood Cemetery since I was a kid, so I don’t have a clear recollection of this particular stone. So when there isn’t any snow covering it (it’s behind one of those protective fences) I’m going to get another picture of it.
Update: The verse on the base of that white stone is from I Thessalonians 4:13, which says: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”
That’s where Paul is instructing Christians not to grieve those who have passed away because they have a place in the resurrection.
Verse 14 continues: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
Side note: Theodore Hagerott wrote a book about this cemetery. It may be available at the state library or the ND State Historical Society if you’re interested in learning more. Greenwood Cemetery remains in my mind one of Mandan’s best kept secrets.
This building changed hands (and names) several times over the years and was most recently known as the Palace Arms Hotel. Much of the facility was not even in use at that time. The bar hosted a pretty good comedy club at one point but shut down as the Millenium club under some licensing circumstances (if memory serves me correctly). It has sat empty for quite some time.
This will now be the site of the Bank of North Dakota once the demolition is completed and construction can begin. That, combined with the upcoming replacement of the Veterans Memorial Bridge with a shiny new one, could revitalize this area somewhat. Since I love our fair city I hope this eventually comes to fruition.
I’m not sure what this grotesque has to do with Lewis and Clark, thunderbirds, or anything else…but there it sits. No one I’ve talked to thinks it’s anything but an eyesore. Now I hear rumors of a second one?
The International Space Station (ISS) will be visible over Bismarck this month! If you’ve never seen it, it’s quite large and moves very quickly overhead. When the Space Shuttle is docked with it, the thing is enormous.
Because of its orbit, it’s not always visible from Bismarck. This month, however, it will be. It only takes a few minutes at most to pass from horizon to horizon.
You can track the ISS overhead by clicking here.
In the 1980s I worked in this building, the Pinehurst office building at 1424 West Century Avenue. Who cares, right? Well, the oddity about this building is that it wasn’t even near Century Avenue at the time. West Century Avenue continued straight westward from Washington, eventually intersecting with Tyler Parkway. Clydesdale Drive, the street that the Pinehurst building actually sat on, continued due south to intersect behind Country West Conoco (at that time the Truck Plaza 35 truck stop).
A call to the City of Bismarck’s engineering department confirmed that the plan for Century Avenue was to divert it south around the water tower hill; yet it followed the section line to the north of the hill until such time as city growth warranted the new road, which now curves south of the water tower hill. It turns out their planning was very wise, because that’s where the bulk of the new “big box” stores have popped up recently. Can you imagine if all that traffic had to go up that hill and back around through the neighborhoods in the Tyler Parkway area? What a mess!
The water’s pretty high at Fox Island. And frozen too.