“When I left for Vietnam and flew out of Bismarck, that's the first time that I saw my dad cry,” Vietnam War veteran David “Dave” Logosz says. “My mom and dad were there, and my grandparents were there, and they were all in tears. I'm sure they didn't think I was going to come back alive.”
But he did.
“They needed people, and we were just kind of a link in a food chain,” Westhope native and Vietnam War veteran Dennis “Denny” McKechnie says. “I didn’t have a choice. I got No. 19 in the lottery, and my buddy got 18. … We knew where we were going, right?”
They were just boys when their country called them.
“I didn’t want to be there, but yet, here I am with 30 guys. They don’t want to be there neither,” Denny recalls of the plane ride to Vietnam in May 1971.
He was only 20 years old.
What was once a vacant corner lot is now home to an impressive 6,000-square-foot building – a monument to what can be accomplished when people work together to solve the challenges facing people living in rural areas.
Like so many small towns across North Dakota, many of Edgeley’s main street businesses had closed, leaving a row of vacant lots and empty, often deteriorating, buildings.
The community had hosted the local medical clinic for many years through a joint agreement between the city of Edgeley and Sanford Health.
When Judy Werner of Flasher reached retirement, she knew the Medicare system would be an important part of her future, but also a daunting one.
“I’m sure the retirement plans are difficult to understand for many people,” she says, “so it's good to have a representative who has the knowledge and skills to help make those decisions.”
Visitors to the 45th Big Iron Farm and Construction Show will immerse themselves in three days of agricultural and construction industry innovations, with plenty of opportunities to sit in the seat and test the technology.
A free concert, exhibit booths, daily demonstrations and informational sessions are all part of the schedule for the 45th annual show.
This fall, students returning to school will say goodbye to summer and their cellphones.
In April, Gov. Kelly Armstrong signed into law a bill banning student cellphone use in the state’s public schools.
The law requires cellphones to be secured during instructional time, from the start of the school day to dismissal, or “bell to bell.” It does not include school-owned devices such as laptops and tablets used for educational purposes, but covers a variety of personal devices, including smartwatches and tablets, that could distract students during the day.
Tracie Thompson hasn’t gotten a paycheck in more than a year and a half – and it isn’t because she’s not working.
She’s working – a lot. And she’s trying to make things work in the small town of Westhope, 2 miles from the Canadian border in north-central North Dakota.
A few years ago, the Westhope grocery store, which Thompson managed, was in financial trouble, and the owner was forced to close in December 2023.
A historic June 20 storm brought thunderstorms, extreme winds, large hail, tornados and even a derecho – a term reserved for the most intense, widespread and long-lasting severe thunderstorms. Wind gusts were recorded up to 101 mph 5 miles northwest of Linton, 99 mph in northern Kidder County and 94 mph near Elgin. Tornados touched down across the region, including a fatal one that killed three people in rural Enderlin. Another storm-related death occured in Stutsman County.
It was the most deadly tornado North Dakota has seen in nearly five decades.
