Daily Archives: April 4, 2011

Welcome to Bismarck. Restrictions in effect. Only one catch: you may have to guess what they are

Posted on by
Reply

It’s that time of year again: the ubiquitous “Restrictions in Effect” signs are popping up around the periphery of Bismarck. Restrictions of what nature, you ask? If your only source of information is these signs, I suppose it’s anyone’s guess.

I first saw these signs go up three years ago (and every Spring since) and thought they were pretty funny. It’s because of the load restrictions on Bismarck roads, which I heard about on the radio, but the signs are vague enough to omit that detail. It’s only after someone figured out what was missing (maybe they read this blog) and wedged a little “Load” in there that the signs made sense:

This is how the corrected signs look. I was actually surprised to find an unmodified one posted up along Divide Avenue this afternoon. As you can see in this post from last March, I was almost second-guessing whether I’d even seen the signs without the word “Load” inserted. Today’s sighting of one of the original signs is a bit of a vindication, I suppose. Now someone’s going to have to dash up to Divide Avenue with another “Load” sticker!

Barney

Posted on by
Reply

The remains of this old barn reside just northwest of Mandan on Highway 25. I’d photographed this structure before, but I don’t think I have done so while it’s been covered with snow. I like the range of colors.

A number of familiar old “fallen farm” structures around town have finally succumbed to old age and fallen completely. There’s only a certain window of time in which these photogenic pieces of history may be captured, and after that they’ll simply collapse into piles of rubble and rot. I’m always intrigued by the thought that these were new at one time.

Somebody once stood back at the completion of building them and stopped to survey a job well done. Somebody was excited to finally have that barn or that new home. Somebody grew up, worked hard, or maybe even passed away in many of these crumbling old buildings. That’s why I think I’m so drawn to them; a photo of a decrepit farmhouse, barn or shed is merely a starting point from which one can look back and surmise what it could have been like back in its glory days.