Singing in my best song leader voice: “You gotta go ‘ta’… North Dakota. / With the cattle and the wheat, / And the folks that can’t be beat.” (a tune learned in high school)
Nowadays, considerable time can pass without me thinking about North Dakota, mentioned without intending disrespect. I LIKE North Dakota. My wife spent five childhood years in Riverdale (population 222). I had a long-term client relationship in Fargo, spending five or six days a month there for two-plus years. Most people I’ve met from North Dakota are first rate, including friends we often travel with.
I cite North Dakota because it’s currently experiencing a boomlet in our national consciousness, at least in mine. Such moments don’t last long, which is why I’m writing now.
Point #1: A new mosasaur! For those not knowledgeable about prehistoric creatures – like me – mosasaurs are giant sea critters that lived alongside dinosaurs. Where was this monster discovered? Cavalier County, North Dakota, near the U.S. – Canada border, next to Walhalla (population 896). The name given to these remains: Jormungandr walhallaensis, genus name derived from Norse mythology. Jormiungandr is an unfathomably large sea worm, encircling the globe, biting its own tail. Walhallaensis is from the word Valhalla… referencing an ancient Nordic / Germanic afterlife concept, where warriors savor an everlasting feast (like Thanksgiving at Grandma’s!).
North Dakota’s Jormungandr walhallaensis is a giant lizard with flippers from 80 million years ago, going extinct with dinosaurs. Paleontologists are still debating whether this discovery represents a totally new genus and species, meaning the name could change. I hope the descriptive sea worm name prevails.
Point #2: Teddy Roosevelt! Medora, North Dakota (population 125) is where our 26th president lived for almost three years beginning 140 years ago. It will soon boast the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in addition to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which is already there. Hey, there’s considerable vacant space in the western Dakotas. The $333 million project includes funding from the state’s oil and gas revenues and is scheduled to open July 4, 2026.
Roosevelt first went to Medora in 1883 to hunt buffalo. He returned to rally from depression brought on by the death of his wife and mother on the same day. According to Roosevelt, “I would not have been President had it not been for my experience in North Dakota. It was here that the romance of my life began.”
This endeavor is as ambitious as the man it honors. The library’s 93,000 square feet will tell Roosevelt’s life story; in immersive “experience galleries,” visitors will assess how they stack up compared to the Rough Rider. Quoting a New York Times story, the facility “will disappear into the landscape, half embedded in the earth. …(and) will be among the most sustainable cultural institutions in the world, meeting goals of zero energy, zero water, zero emissions and zero waste.” Impressive!
Point #3: Doug Burgum’s presidential campaign. North Dakota’s Governor, born and raised in Arthur, North Dakota (population 328) is probably a good guy and might even be a pretty good president. That said, chances of his being elected President in 2024 are roughly equal to Bismarck (North Dakota’s capital) becoming the U.S. capital.
Shortly after Burgum announced his candidacy, George Will wrote a Washington Post column entitled “Meet the unusually qualified presidential candidate you’ve never heard of”. Will explains, “(Burgum’s) executive success in the private and public sectors marks him as unusually qualified for the presidency. His focus on the future – on the far horizon, not on stroking the nominating electorate’s erogenous zones – explains his regrets about today’s plebiscitary nominating process.”
Burgum’s estimated net worth is approximately one billion dollars, so despite his campaign’s shortcomings, let’s save our sympathies for greater tragedies. Meanwhile, current and former North Dakotans have several fresh bragging points to supplement being the country’s #1 honey producer. And those of us from small communities – almost a given for people from North Dakota – are reminded anew of boundless possibilities.
Singing again, the last line of that North Dakota song: “So say hello ‘ta’… North Dakota / And you just can’t say goodbye!”
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I’m pleased to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. My colleagues are: