Cally Peterson

What can other towns learn from Bowdon and its meat processing cooperative?

“It gets back to the basics of the game, the baseball analogy: Too many are shooting for the grand slam when they could be really focusing on these types of base hits,” says Ellen Huber, rural development services director for the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives (NDAREC). “Big things get all the attention, but this is an important incremental small business step a community was known for and made sure they could continue to stake their claim.”

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.

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.

A gardener, quilter and fourth-generation McKenzie County resident living on her grandparents’ homestead. A mom and trusted local real estate agent. A U.S. Air Force veteran and Montana transplant turned McKenzie County resident. A proud new dad and long-suffering Minnesota Vikings fan.

What do they all have in common? They are among the more than 3,000 North Dakotans who run North Dakota elections. And, they’re your neighbors.

On July 5, Carrington Fire Chief Ken Wangen had a call for a “locomotive fire.” When he arrived on scene about 9 miles southeast of Carrington near Bordulac, he found 29 rail cars carrying hazardous materials, including anhydrous ammonia, had derailed, causing a massive fire.

Thanks to the quick response by Wangen and other local responders, and with assistance from urban and rural fire departments in Jamestown, Kensal, Pingree, New Rockford, Sykeston, Harvey, Devils Lake and Rugby, there were no casualties.

While a shared love of history and desire to preserve it for future generations called Marvel Gross and Randy Woehl to serve on the board of the McIntosh County Heritage Center, a question from their county auditor propelled them toward an incredible opportunity for their local museum.
 

North Dakota Living, the state’s largest-circulated publication and statewide electric cooperative magazine, will conduct a readership survey later this summer. If you are randomly selected to participate, we ask you to consider taking the survey.
Magazine readership surveys are conducted at regular intervals, ideally every three to five years. The last North Dakota Living readership survey was completed in May 2020.

A 5-gallon bucket of carrots, “unwashed and dirty,” and three ice cream pails of chokecherries.

“That’s how my business got started,” says Diane Schmidt, recalling her first sales attempt at the Mandan Farmers Market nearly 40 years ago.

Schmidt was a single mom at the time. She’d haul kids and carrots to the farmers market on Saturday mornings. She can still picture her young boys, in 1986, sitting on the curb while Mom made sales.

“I don’t know that we could have did it without her,” says Corey Hart, a Bowdon area rancher who in 2010 desired to have a local meat processing facility in his community.

Many wouldn’t have thought it could be done. Period.

Bowdon’s population was 127 in 2010. The project faced challenges. A lack of people and capital, but not a lack of heart.
If the community of Bowdon wanted it bad enough, Lori Capouch was willing to try.