Jason Bentz has always loved fishing.
Growing up, Bentz and his family would spend their weekends camping at Heart Butte Dam and Lake Tschida, reeling in walleye, perch and bass from dawn until dusk in a 14-foot aluminum boat.
“You couldn’t go out when there was a whole lot of waves,” Bentz says with a laugh.
On camping trips, the family slept in a truck topper perched on a ’79 Dodge and spent time stargazing when they weren’t casting.
With a mission to create healthier food options, three sisters – Annie (Sproule) Gorder, Mollie (Sproule) Ficocello and Grace (Sproule) Lunski – are transforming the way people think about pasta, one nutritious meal at a time.
After growing up with a deep passion for farming instilled by their family, the Sproule sisters ventured one-by-one to college at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn. However, it wouldn’t take long until whispers from the Red River Valley beckoned them back to the fertile fields of home, Sproule Farms near Grand Forks.
More than 60 years after Capt. William Richardson’s F-106 aircraft crashed into the frozen prairie near Flasher in 1963, a memorial saluting his sacrifice now stands alongside Highway 31 in Grant County.
Richardson’s daughter, who was 2 years old when her father died, tearfully attended the memorial’s dedication, as a 21-gun salute sounded into the pristine sky and a P-51 Mustang roared overhead in a flyover.
The soldier’s ultimate sacrifice has been honored in a warm embrace by the state, even though he was not a native son.
Service and sacrifice are two things Mike Steier understands well.
After graduating from New England High School, Steier volunteered in 2005 for a yearlong deployment to Iraq. Last year, he retired from the N.D. National Guard after 20 years of service.
After returning from Iraq and working as a farmhand, Steier went to Bismarck State College on the GI Bill and obtained his electrical lineworker degree. Shortly after, he was hired by Roughrider Electric Cooperative in Dickinson, and he’s worked for the co-op ever since.
One in five eligible North Dakotans turned out to vote in June’s primary election. My county did better than the state average with 43% voter turnout in Kidder County. But little Billings County in western North Dakota, home to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and 945 people, did better than all of us with 59.25% voter turnout. Teddy would be proud.
You could drive from Watford City to New York City and the distance would be roughly the equivalent of the miles of roads maintained by McKenzie County in the western North Dakota oil patch.
“It’s right around 1,500 to 1,800 miles of roads with gravel and pavement,” says McKenzie County Road Superintendent Layton Northrop.
Howdy Lawlar has driven most of them.
Farming in his tractor or feeding his registered Black Angus cattle.
Driving to county commission meetings as chairman or responding to calls as a volunteer fireman.
Could you get any more “North Dakota” than that?
It’s what I asked myself after talking to State Sen. Merrill Piepkorn and Congressman Kelly Armstrong about an idea I had for this month’s recipe section: What if we featured favorite recipes from North Dakota’s gubernatorial candidates?
A light accompaniment to a weightier issue of North Dakota Living. A side of broccoli with lasagna, if you will.
Energy.
