If you’re looking for a workout and have moderate mountain biking skills, hop on the trail above River Road…it’s a challenge! If you think it isn’t, do three laps sometime. That will change your mind.
The path I’ve chosen
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Tower City
These towers include the local Cumulus FMs, KNDX (Fox), KBMY (ABC), KBME (PBS), KXMB (CBS), KFYR (NBC), and KYYY (Y-93). Most of them are on Tokach land, except for the KBMY tower. They can be clearly seen from Bismarck and much of Mandan, unless you live below some sort of hill.
Local viewers who don’t have cable are actually quite fortunate to have the tower situation set up in such a way. Guys like me who have satellite TV and use an off-air antenna to pick up the local stations can aim that antenna once and forget about it. You see, TV antennas are quite directional in nature…and if the towers for different stations were located all over the place, you’d have to rotate your antenna to optimize your signal from one station to the next. As it stands, I just bought a rooftop antenna for $20 at Menards and mounted it inside the attic of my house, facing towards “tower city,” and forgot about it.
While out here, I saw something I don’t recall ever seeing before: a meteor streaking down out of the sky so slowly, so close to the ground, that I could actually see the wisps of flame coming off it before it disintegrated in a flash. It was amazing! There were lots of shooting stars last night, so I’ll probably be out chasing more tonight.
Midnight
At one point the clouds broke, the stars poked out, and I made one stop to point the camera back at Bismarck. The city lights bounce off the clouds so nicely, and can be seen from many miles away. By playing with the white balance on my camera I was able to get a pretty unusual color bounce.
Thank God it’s Raining (TGIR)
Wednesday night sunset
I parked on an approach east of Bismarck and walked to the fence line to get this photo. I’m a big proponent of property owners’ rights, so I don’t go anyplace I’m not invited…that’s why most of my “Fallen Farm” photos are taken from a distance or at an angle. After I got this photo and some others with an old threshing machine in the background, I ran back to the truck…literally. Despite the mostly clear sky, it was sprinkling on me and my camera!
At that point there was southbound traffic stuck at the train crossing on 66th Street, waiting for a train to pass. I backed out of the approach onto 66th, drove up the road a ways, then stopped on the shoulder to get an even wider shot featuring the silhouettes of some Bismarck landmarks in the distance. I got back in the truck to continue to my destination: a friend’s house, where I was doing one of those “will fix computers for Mountain Dew” calls. I saw a couple of cars following me, but didn’t think much of it.
I was well into the computer when the sheriff’s deputies knocked on the door, asking who owned the truck in the driveway. They explained to me that someone had seen me off-roading on their property. I told them what really happened, and they explained that a dog belonging to someone on 66th Street had just been shot, and they thought I might be responsible! I showed them what I had been up to, and it was all cleared up right away…we figured that they’d been stuck on the other side of the train and didn’t see that I was only parked on the side of the road. All’s well that ends well, I guess.
About that new Scheels…
This Scheels is the corporate headquarters now, which explains the size of it. In addition to having more selection than before, they have gone the whole outfitter route like Cabella’s has, in addition to having even a souvenir / home decor section. For things like bikes and that sort of thing, they don’t have a selection that’s any more impressive than any other Scheels store I’ve visited. That’s not to say that they’re lacking, though. And the gun section, to which our crew made a beeline, is pretty large.
Now it’ll be interesting to see what they do with the Bismarck Scheels, once they move into the current Target store location.
There be dragons about
There have been a lot of enormous dragonflies buzzing about lately. This is also a good time for damselflies…if you can find any wetland areas in this drought, poke around in the weeds and you’ll find thousands of little dragonflies and damselflies in an assortment of colors!
New “Strip Mall of America” stretching over 1/6 of North Dakota
Those wacky satirists at The Onion have put North Dakota in their sights again. I was perusing tonight and came across this article about a “Strip Mall of America.” It looks like whoever wrote it either knows how to read an ND map, did their research, or both. Sure, anyone can fill in the correct town names…but when they start mentioning things like the Ben Franklin and Jo-Ann Fabrics, I start to think they know this state pretty well.
I like The Onion. I first found out about it years ago from my friend Stacy (no, not the one I married) in Milwaukee, where this paper is based. It’s a local paper, actually, but is so darn funny that it gets widespread circulation on paper and online. Sure, some of it is politically opposite of my beliefs, and I wish there wasn’t a single swear word in it, but most of The Onion’s fake news is palatable.
These guys are the ones who brought us such gems as “North Dakota Found to be Harboring Nuclear Missiles” back when we were pursuing action against Saddam’s Iraq, “South Dakota Asked to Water North Dakota’s Crops Over the Weekend,” “North Dakota Leads Nation in Parking Availability,” “North Dakota Not Heard From in 48 Hours,” and others.
So if you love satire, fake news, and can tune out an occasional profanity, check out the above articles featuring North Dakota from the witty chaps over at The Onion.
Mike Kalvoda: actor, writer, graphic novelist…game show contestant?
That’s not the only game show Mike earned a spot on: he’s also been on The Price is Right, where he won A NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW CAR! in “Lucky Seven”, three episodes of “100%” with Casey Kasem; and “To Tell the Truth” where he impersonated his way to four incorrect votes as a human calculator. Thanks to IMDB for that one…they sure are a wealth of information!
You can check out Mike’s website for more accomplishments, such as a Pepto Bismol commercial and a “Will & Grace” episode. But I think the one he’s hoping for the most interest in is his treatment of the hit movie “Final Destination” as a graphic novel, published by Zenescope Entertainment. He’s done two issues, and I think he’s going after Grimm’s Fairy Tales next.
I haven’t seen Mike in quite a while, since he’s part of the Hollywood crowd and I live…well, here. Last year his mom paid me a visit at the Medora Musical during the intermission, thanks to my friend “Gentleman Wade Westin” announcing that the newlywed Clint and Stacy were seated front row center. I might have to come up with some little-known information about Wade next…I owe him one! Too bad he’s not hosting the Musical this year.
Anyway, props to Mike. I miss ya, buddy. I know your last trip back was for a family emergency, but please don’t forget to look up this blogger the next time you pass through!
A brief history lesson
The building, which doesn’t look quite like the NDSHS photo above, has been around for a long, long time. I’ve spent some time in the county archives and am piecing together a complete history. Here are some interesting facts I’ve found:
The railroad was apparently granted a pretty big easement on either side of the tracks when it came through here; the land the church sits on, on 7th and Avenue C, is in the Northern Pacific 2nd Addition part of town. The land was transferred from the railroad to a number of private owners until Trinity Lutheran Church purchased it in 1912 and built a church there. That church was later sold in 1926 and has changed hands many times since. It became Open Door Baptist Church in 1981 (thus the 25th anniversary) and I’m still filling in the gaps therebetween. I can tell so far that it has been a 7th Day Adventists church, a Menonnite Brethren church, and at least two different Baptist churches.
My searches on the computer only got me so far back; from there I switched to microfilm cards, and those got me back a little further. But the most interesting (and time consuming) work has been flipping pages in the huge old 120-year-old books in the county archives. Talk about neat! I went from my adventures in a nanotechnology center Thursday to handling books from the 1800s on Friday. What a week.
Here are some other interesting Bismarck facts I have dug up recently:
Bismarck was originally named Edwinton, named after Edwin Johnson of Vermont. He was the man who came up with the suggestion for a transcontinental railroad.
They changed the name to Bismarck to try to get Otto von Bismarck to kick in some venture capital and invest in the railroad, the lifeblood of the city.
Bismarck became the territorial capitol by offering land and cash — $100,000 and 160 acres. Logically, it then became North Dakota’s capitol when we achieved statehood. I was on assignment last week with some guys from the federal government, and they asked Governor Hoeven about the capitol site…at that time, someone from the state came up with a slightly smaller number than 160 acres. Some of it may have been portioned off for other uses.
Some names you might find familiar if you read street signs:
– Sweet and Bowen were to engineers who worked on the layout of the city in its early planning stages.
– Grant Marsh wasn’t a bridge, he was the captain of the Far West riverboat, ferrying people and cargo across the Missouri River.
– Alexander McKenzie owned the hotel that later became the Patterson, on 5th and Main.
– John Yegen owned a bakery on Main Avenue, and it’s now an attraction at Buckstop Junction east of Bismarck.
– Belle Mehus was a Bismarck piano teacher for many years.
Did you know that the CAT isn’t the first bus system that Bismarck had? Or that a trolley ran up 4th street from Main Avenue to the Capitol? Or that, during the railroad’s heyday, Bismarck was called “the wickedest town in America” due to its saloons and rowdy passers-through?
These and a lot of other facts and photos are out there if you just hunt around. For instance, the walls at the Peacock Alley have lots of old photos of downtown Bismarck. I highly recommend a book titled “Images of America: Bismarck, North Dakota” by local author Cathy Langemo, from which the above names are taken. She seems to have done some really fun research and compiled some photos as well. The book’s ISBN number is 0-7385-2000-4 and it can be found in the local interest section of Barnes & Noble.