Hometown: Heritage 2019-20 Part 2 of 2

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Open Mo Mon. on. - Thurs. 10 AM M - 8 PM; Fri. & Sat.10 AM - 6 PM; Sun.12 Noon - 5 PM Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

LEFT: Corbett Field’s concrete seating has been replaced by comfortable chairs. The first chair seating installed at Corbett Field were orange seats that came from Atlanta’s old Fulton County Stadium.

BELOW: The Flying Red Buffalo at Corbett Field dates back to the 1950s when Westland Oil sponsored the centerfield sign at what was then known as the Minot Municipal Ballpark.

Photos by Alex Eisen/MDN

Minot’s historic

CORBETT FIELD

By KIM FUNDINGSLAND

Minot

Staff Writer • kfundingsland@minotdailynews.com

C

orbett Field is cloaked in heritage and history. The facility that for many years was known as the Minot Municipal Ballpark is the home base for countless dreams and memories.

The grand structure located on East Burdick Expressway across from Roosevelt Park, completed in 1937, was built thought the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. In 1947 the Minot Park Board added a roof on the grandstand and lights to accommodate play after dark. Other improvements that began in the mid-90s included moving

light standards out of the field of play, upgrading lighting, replacing the classic old manual scoreboard and constructing interior fencing that shrunk the dimension to the once massive outfield.

Thousands of players have known the joy of playing at Corbett Field, which was named after Victor Corbett, a dentist who was also a president of the Minot Park Board. Ballplayers young and old roamed the field, taking fly balls in the wonderfully green outfield or ground balls on the perfectly groomed infield. It was, and still is, a magical place for any ballplayer of any age.

Baseball is the nation’s ageless sport with a history reaching back to its beginnings at the time of the Great War of the Rebellion. From a time when the whole country was crazy over baseball came the inevitable ad-

vances in diamonds, independent teams and structured leagues.

The list of players that graced Corbett Field included local favorites Zoonie McLean, a flashy shortstop with a good bat, and popular pitcher Sugar Cain. They were the mainstays when Minot played in the Manitoba-Dakota, or Man-Dak League, from 1950 to 1957.

One of the most famous personalities to ever step onto the diamond at Corbett Field was legendary pitcher Satchel Paige, the most dominant pitcher of the old Negro Leagues. Paige was believed to be about 50 years old when the barnstormer took the mound for an inning for three consecutive games for Minot.

See CORBETT — Page 46

MinotDailyNews.com • Hometown 2019

45

Corbett

Continued from Page 45

In 1958 Minot entered the Northern League, a circuit owned and operated by major league affiliates. The Minot Mallards were a minor league team owned by the Cleveland Indians. The roster of former Northern League players included the likes of Henry Aaron who played for Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Roger Maris who saw action with the Fargo-Moorhead Twins. “Hammerin’” Hank Aaron went on to surpass Babe Ruth’s major league home run record. Maris set the single season mark with 61 while playing with the New York Yankees.

Top Northern League teams during the Minot Mallards stint as a minor league affiliate were the Fargo-Moorhead Twins, Winnipeg Goldeyes, Aberdeen Pheasants and Eau Claire Braves.

The Mallards drew about 600 fans per game to watch aspiring major leaguers display their talent. Among the visiting players was Joe Torre, a catcher for Eau Claire in 1960. Torre went on to a hall-of-fame career as a player and manager.

Players on the Mallards who were called up to the big leagues included Paul Casanova, Max Alvis, Mike de la Hoz and Larry Stahl.

Casanova played for the Mallards in 1960 before joining the a former Negro League team,

46

Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

Kim Fundingsland/MDN

This overhead view of Corbett Field was taken June 24, 2011, as historic flood waters were on the rise. the Indianapolis Clowns, in 1961. By 1967 Casanova made the American League All-Star team while playing with the Washington Senators. As an Atlanta Brave in 1971 he was behind the plate for a no-hitter tossed by knuckleballer Phil Niekro.

Alvis spent nine years in the majors, eight of them at third base for Cleveland.

The .247 career hitter peppered pitching at a .343 clip while with the Mallards. De la Hoz, who hit .315 for the 1958 Mallards, also advanced to the majors and put together a good career.

One of the most popular Mallards was Larry Stahl, a .270 hitter in 1962. His resume was similar to many other ballplayers hoping for a shot at the majors. In addition to Minot, Stahl played for the Albuquerque Dukes, Visalia Athletics, Lewiston Broncs, Portsmouth Tides, Birmingham Barons, Vancouver Mounties, Jacksonville Suns, Salt Lake City Bees and Phoenix Giants.

In 1962 the Minot Mallards were affiliated with the then Kansas City Athletics. Stahl eventually got the call he had dreamed of and went on to a 10-year major league career with Kansas City, New York Mets, San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds. The athletic outfielder went two-for-four with the Reds in the 1973 National League Championship Series, his last year in the majors.

Today’s players at Corbett Field step onto the same confines as the greats of old. It is a place where history comes out of the ground

and touches the soul of every ballplayer. It is truly a field of dreams.

The stadium was built much like a smaller copy of major league facilities. Fans purchased tickets at a walk-up window and then entered the grandstand by walking up ramps leading to the seating area. The initial view of the field never failed to impress – the shiny white lines, green grass and players playing pepper along the sidelines. The bullpen fences were gathering places for fans where they could get close to their favorite players.

A number of teams have played at Corbett Field since the Mallards ceased Northern League play following the 1962 season. Included was a new version of the Mallards who played in the Prairie League from 1995 to 1997. The Minot Greenheads of the Northwoods League played a single season at Corbett. Currently the Souris Valley Sabre Dogs, a collection of college players, call Corbett Field home.

A constant through the years has always been local players at Corbett Field, from Minot State University to area high schools to American Legion and Babe Ruth programs, and will continue into the foreseeable future.

Gone is the sit-down lunch counter where Mallard players and fans would often mix after a ballgame. The green grass has been replaced by modern turf, but the unmistakable aura of the historic grounds remains. It always will. That’s baseball and the incredible heritage of Corbett Field.

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MDN File Photo

Minot air force base

Dr. A.L. Cameron, director in charge of the Military Affairs Committee, Minot Chamber of Commerce, extends greetings during the groundbreaking ceremony held Tuesday afternoon, July 12, 1955, for the Minot jet interceptor base.

MANY STEPPED UP TO BRING BASE TO MINOT

By ELOISE OGDEN

* 59BFE.C * 4BM FH15F945E0DBEFM 4.BCOE5NIG2FD

I

t’s been reported frequently that Minot businessmen donated $50,000 for the first portions of land for Minot Air Force Base.

The Minot Chamber of Commerce, now Minot Area Chamber of Commerce, and its membership played a major role in establishing the Air Force base at Minot in the 1950s.

At a May 14, 1954, special meeting of the Chambers board of directors Reuben Krebsbach, Chamber president, explained the meeting had been called to review a meeting with Air Force officials relative to the establishment of a jet interceptor base in the vicinity of Minot.

Present at the meeting were Morris Broschat, Zollie Gordon, Norman Larsen, Kenneth G. Pringle, R.P. Krebsbach, Hugh M. Barden, Jack Coughlin, H.M. Montgomery, Dr. A.L. Cameron and A.R. Weinhandl along with others including R.B. Riddle, city manager; Ulric M. Gwynn, Chamber secretary; Bruce Van Sickle, chairman of the Aviation Committee; A.M. Christensen of the Industrial Development Committee; and R.F. Mills, Great Northern Railway.

A complete report on the transaction with the Air Force

Minot civic leaders instrumental in establishing base

Three months later on Aug. 17, 1954, Cameron, chairman of the Air Base Committee, told the Chamber’s board of directors his committee was sending a letter to the membership “relative to the proposed drive to raise the $50,000 committed to the Air Force for the purpose of purchasing some of the land for the base,” according to Chamber board of directors meeting minutes.

Cameron also told them the committee was sending a letter to Col. Fred Mauck in Washington, D.C., “thanking he officials was given to the board and after discussion a reso- and the rest of the officials for the many courtesies shown lution presented by Gwynn was moved for adoption by the Minot people in the recent negotiations for establishing Coughlin with a second by Cameron. The motion carried the base here,” the board of directors meeting minutes said. unanimously.

Change of mind “Included in this motion was a resolution that the Air A new Air Force base in this part of the state nearly didForce be advised that Minot Chamber of Commerce would raise the sum of $50,000 to be used in acquiring land for n’t come to Minot but a change of mind by military leaders construction of this jet interceptor base in the vicinity of gave Minot the base.

Bismarck was first selected for the site of a new jet interMinot, if said city is selected for this base.”

The Minot Chamber was to prepare a brief and forward ceptor base.

Both Bismarck and Minot had offered substantially the it to the Air Force. A committee was appointed to work with same agreement to the military for an Air Force base, with the Chamber’s secretary in preparing the brief. Those appointed were Cameron, serving as chairman, and Riddle, cooperation and assistance from both of their chambers.

Coughlin, Christenson, Van Sickle, Weinhandl, MontSee BASE — Page 50 gomery, T.A. Solheim and H.S. Davies.

MinotDailyNews.com • Hometown 2019

49

Base

Continued from Page 49

When the military changed its mind and chose Minot.

Bismarck thought it got a lousy deal so North Dakota Sen. Milton R. Young and others grilled military officials at a hearing about their change of mind. The military leaders said they chose Minot for military reasons. They said after reviewing all of the engineering , the Bismarck site had certain operational obstacles that they felt would be inadvisable to accept as a long-range development.

Minot was selected as the site for North Dakota’s first “major military” installation.

When Cameron reported to the board on Nov. 16, 1954, on the status of the drive for funds pledged to the Air Force, all board members were “urged to bend their efforts to the completion of the drive in order that the Air Force might be advised of the availability of the $50,000.

Groundbreaking ceremony

When the day came for the groundbreaking ceremony, on July 12, 1955, to kick off work for the jet interceptor base on the former Ted Abresch farm land, city leaders attending included B.O. Dahl, president of the Ward County Board of Commissioners; Minot Mayor Maurice Harrington; and Davies, Weinhandl, Cameron and Gwyn.

At the groundbreaking, Gwyn performed the introductions at the program.

Cameron said at the ceremony, “In our country’s buildup of air power, we are proud to have our city and community become an important site and link along the northern border.”

He said the chamber and community welcomed the opportunity which the base affords “to reveal our spirit of loyalty in every way possible by timely and unstinted cooperation in the construction and establishment of this great military base,” according to the Minot Daily News files.

Harrington also was among the speakers at the event.

That day he assured Brig. Gen. James O. Guthrie, Great Falls, Mont., commanding general of the 29th Air Division, in which the Minot base will be included, and Col. Thomas L. Hayes Jr., Omaha District engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that “Minot realizes its responsibility in this enterprise and I am sure will give its wholehearted support.” He also expressed gratitude for the spirit of cooperation shown by farmers who lost or would lose their farms due to location of the installation.

Harrington said contractors had plans for building around 1,000 new homes in line with growth of the city both from the base construction project and new industries.

The mayor also spoke for all Minot area citizens present that day when he told Guthrie, Hayes and the Air Force in general that “Minot welcomes you ... may your stay with us be a happy one,” according to the files of the Minot Daily News.

The ceremony, held at a site 11 miles north of Minot on land formerly farmed by Ted Abresch, marked the official start of construction work for establishing Minot AFB. “The base is slated to be in full operation by the spring of 1957 and may be ready for the first F102A jet interceptor planes by late next fall,” reported the Minot Daily News on July 12, 1955.

A few days later, at a Chamber board of directors meeting on July 19, 1955, according to the meeting minutes, Weinhandl told the group of the many complimentary remarks paid to the City and Chamber by two special investigators for the U.S. Government who had been in Minot investigating conditions listed by the local agencies, as well

50

MDN File Photo

A crowd listened to speakers at the groundbreaking ceremony held July 12, 1955, for the Minot jet interceptor base. as the Corps of Engineers and Air Force in connection with the establishment of the jet base at Minot. It was brought out these men were amazed at community facilities available in Minot and the fact the people were so cooperative and friendly.

‘Father of Minot Air Force Base’

Weinhandl was often known as the “Father of Minot Air Force Base.”

“When Weinhandl substantiated rumors that the Air Force was contemplating locating a base in upper northwest North Dakota, he didn’t sit back waiting for other communities to lure the base. He jumped in – helping organize community leaders. In a very few days the committee raised $50,000 which was turned over to the Treasury Department toward the purchase of the land for the Air Base site, according to a 1963 story about Weinhandl published in “Commercial West,” a weekly banking and business magazine published in Minneapolis.

Weinhandl and his wife, Ethel, died in a traffic accident in June 1973. More than 2,000 military members and others paid tribute to Weinhandl’s outstanding deeds to the base at a parade held on base in 1973.

“Everyone in Minot and at the base either knew Al Weinhandl, or at least was affected or touched by some of the service projects to which he generously devoted his time and energies,” said Chaplain (Colonel) Dean Hofstad, installation chaplain, as reported in a July 3, 1973, story in the Minot Daily News.

“It was Al Weinhandl who spearheaded local efforts to induce the Department of Defense to locate an Air Force base near Minot, and when it happened it was he who led the welcoming party out here to make their military neighbors to the north fell like valued friends and allies. Indeed, he has often been called the Father of Minot AFB.” Weinhandl also led the way when a local chapter of the Air Force Association was established in Minot and he eventually served as state president, according to the newspaper.

As the years passed, he became a familiar figure on this

Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

base, and each new commander was told by his predecessor, ‘If you need a friend in the city of Minot, Al Weinhandl’s your man.’ Not that this ever was needed, because Al Weinhandl would be out within days to offer his own personal welcome and pledge of support,” according to the 1973 story.

Ray Dobson Day at Minot AFB

Raymond C. Dobson, publisher of the Minot Daily News, was among the business leaders helping establish a base at Minot.

In later years he was honored for his longtime support of the Minot base during “Ray Dobson Day” at Minot Air Force Base when a retreat ceremony, dedication of a tree and a dinner at the Officers Club on Arbor Day were held on May 14, 1976. Brig. Gen. George D. Miller, commander of the base’s 57th Air Division until shortly before the event, said Dobson, who was observing his 57 years as a newsman,“has been a consistent supporter of all MAFB activities and recalled that as an Elks Lodge committee chairman he brought about the financing of the acquisition of land on which John Moses Air Force Regional Hospital is located; also he helped in raising funds that in part were used to purchase the land on which the base is situated. Dobson, he also recalled, has been a longtime member of the Base Advisory Council and the Military Affairs Committee of the Minot Chamber of Commerce.”

A plaque placed at the site of a tree on base read: “With appreciation to Raymond C. Dobson for his many years of devotion to Minot Air Force Base and the city of Minot. Presented by the people of Minot Air Force Base.”

The Minot civic leaders along with others have contributed immensely to establishing Minot Air Force Base and the history of the Minot area.

The Minot Area Chamber of Commerce of today continues its support of Minot Air Force Base and its men and women who are assigned there, their families and civilians employed there.

watford city

Cowboy stories

Submitted Photos

LEFT: Clint Randall in 1900.

ABOVE: Clint and Mary Randall lived in this house after they were married.

By ANDREA JOHNSON

Staff Writer • ajohnson@minotdailynews.com

W

atford City is a town with a cowboy heritage that goes way back.

Clinton C. Randall, an ex-cowboy and rancher, was a charter member of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame.

His obituary in the Williston Herald notes that he “didn’t do anything spectacular to earn the singular honor” but had “simply lived a full life as a cowboy and rancher, giving more than he took and being completely honest with his fellow man.”

He was born in Pennsylvania but came with his family first to Iowa and later to Dickinson. Shortly before the Battle of Wounded Knee on Dec. 29, 1890, at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, 14-year-old Clinton and his father, Tim, drove grain teams for U.S. soldiers who had been deployed to the area.

According to family lore, an army unit was sent by train to Dickinson in the late fall of 1890 and had orders to march and intercept followers of Sitting Bull. They had no wagons and needed to find them locally.

Tim Randall supplied wagons, teams and drivers. Clint Randall drove one and Tim Randall drove the other. One of the horses was gentle enough to ride. Clint Randall later told his children that he had planned to quickly release that horse from its harness, get on the horse and ride away in the other direction if he happened to see a party of hostile Lakota. The detachment rode hundreds of miles over a snowy region without seeing any Native Americans and later returned to Dickinson.

Clint Randall went on to work as a cowboy between 1893 and 1903 on the AHA Ranch, which was later taken over by homesteaders. He then started his own ranch in McKenzie County. In 1913, he filed

on 80 acres of land west of Watford City.

The Watford City Jubilee Book of 1964 states that Clint Randall rode 45 miles one night to Williston to file his claim.

Clint Randall later went on to serve as McKenzie County sheriff between 1916 and 1917. He was blind in his later years, but enjoyed telling stories, including tales about his time as a cowboy.

The typical cowboy diet was “beefsteak, biscuits, and black coffee,” Clinton Randall said. He recalled a time when he and a fellow cowboy found two young kittens on the trail when they were driving a herd of cattle.

The baby cats were too little to eat the standard cowboy fare of tough beefsteak, so the cowboys cut a range cow out of the herd, roped and hog tied her and used her milk to feed the kittens.

In a letter written to Clint’s daughter after his death in 1959, friend Frank Partridge recalled the time he and Clint Randall were hunting horses 20 miles south of Watford City. “We rode up a pinnacle to see if we could see any and we spotted a bunch headed toward the Little Missouri Badlands – of course we knew what it would be if they got into the breaks so we started down off the pinnacle to head them off – which we did and in so doing – we jumped a washout which I think was at least 20 feet deep! And almost that wide – we were going too fast before we saw it – so we spurred our horses and believe it or not we cleared it good and brought the horses into the ranch by another route.”

Clint Randall complained that cowboy movies that were later popular got a lot of facts wrong about life on the range. In a See COWBOY — Page 52

Watford City has a cowboy heritage

MinotDailyNews.com • Hometown 2019

51

Cowboy

Continued from Page 51

privately published memoir, Clint Randall’s grandson recalled listening to his grandfather and some of his friends laughing about TV cowboys and how they used guns. “They said that ‘real’ cowboys rarely carried pistols in holsters,� he wrote. “If they had a pistol, it was most likely rolled up in the coat and rain slicker that was carried on the back of the saddle, or even left rolled in a bedroll on the chuck wagon. Cowboys were more likely to have rifles than pistols, since they were more useful in hunting. These were sometimes carried in a saddle holster.

Cowboys never shot from the saddle. They always dismounted and shot from the

ground because the solid ground allowed much greater accuracy than that produced on the unsteady platform provided by the horse. A box of ammunition cost a significant part of a month’s salary, so most cowboys in the 1880s and 1890s had little practice and many were not good marksmen. Gunfights were extremely rare and they had never seen the quick draw contests in real life that were shown in the movies. They did not see cowboys with a revolver on each hip. They certainly never saw the level of marksmanship exhibited in TV shows and movies while shooting when mounted on a horse (often while the horse was at full gallop). They laughed about TV programs showing cowboys using their saddles as pillows. Some western saddles were lined with sheepskin. If a cowboy had one of these, he might use the

inverted saddle as a pillow, but certainly did not use the hard seat as shown by Hollywood. Clint Randall, the ordinary cowboy, believed that the country owed its status to the men like him who believed “finding a lost calf in a raging blizzard� was more important than “personal ambitions of wealth and fame,� according to his obituary.

Guy Randall, a brother of Clint and another son of Tim Randall, also ranched near Watford City. In 1898, 15-year-old Guy Randall was a member of one of the first “wagon roundup crews� which herded cattle brought north from Texas, according to a story published in the McKenzie County Farmer in 1971.

He told the reporter that cowboys ate mainly dried food such as baked beans that were cooked over a campfire. Cowboys piled

the firewood high and ignited them to get a large heap of hot coals. They then dug a pit and dropped in the coals. Then they put a cast iron dutch oven over the coals and piled more coals over the kettle, which was then covered with dirt. The dinner was then served the following day. Guy Randall thought the beans cooked that way were some of the best he had ever eaten.

Guy Randall was of the opinion that being a cowboy was primarily a young man’s game. Cowboys were out on the range for several days at a time and slept on the ground at night, covered only by a thin blanket that offered little protection against a sudden downpour. “Them was all young guys,� Guy Randall told the reporter. “When a fellow gets to be thirty years old he is no longer a cowboy.�

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Heritage of Rolette County includes

FRENCH INFLUENCE

By ANDREA JOHNSON

Staff Writer • ajohnson@minotdailynews.com

P rolette

eople of French heritage were among the earliest white settlers in Rolette County.

French Catholic missionaries were among the earliest arrivals, according to an account written by Dana Wright in 1957 that was published in the St. John Centennial Book.

Father George Belcourt, a Catholic priest and missionary for whom the city of Belcourt was named, planted a cross at the second highest point in the Turtle Mountains at Butte St. Paul in 1850. Father Belcourt also lived at Pembina and learned the Metis language and compiled a dictionary of the Chippewa language.

The Metis people are descended from French, English and other Europeans who intermarried with Chippewa and Cree people. Father John F. Malo, another Catholic priest from Montreal, founded the St. Claude Chapel in the eastern Turtle Mountains in 1882 for the use of Chippewa and Metis, or Michif. The first child baptized there was Theodore Bercier. Later that year he celebrated the marriage of Roger and Philomena Morin.

Times were tough for early settlers in the area, many of whom traveled from the same area in Quebec.

Among the first settlers in the area were Emilien and Zenaide Lagasse, who remembered sleeping under the open sky when they traveled to the St. John area after getting off the train at Devils Lake in 1884. According to the Rolla Centennial Book, Emilien Lagasse had to use a hammer to break up chunks of caked flour that he got from St. Leon, Manitoba. A hundred pounds of flour cost $4. It was not fit for use but they had nothing else. The couple also bought a pound of sugar for 10 cents for their baby.

Fortunat Martineau, another of the earliest settlers, ran a grocery store in St. John in the early 1880s. Martineau said there was no law around in the early days of the town, so he never did anything to stop customers who came in and took items off the shelf without paying for them.

John Guedesse, another early settler, who also happens to be the great-great grandfather of the staff writer, was originally from Iberville, Quebec. He and his wife came to Rolette County in 1888. They chose the area because some of their neighbors from Quebec had al-

ready settled there, according to the Rolla Centennial Book published in 1988.

John Guedesse built a 16-foot by 18-foot log shack, which was covered with a sod roof and plastered with clay and grass, on his claim. He lived in the shack for six years before he built a frame house, according to the St. John Centennial Book. He and his wife, Delia, bought all their groceries from Martineau, as it was the only grocery in the area.

The only things they brought with them from Canada were their clothing and some blacksmithing and carpentry tools. Guedesse acknowledged that he was not the best blacksmith or carpenter, but said any man in a new country who could not do his own work had no business settling there.

During his first summer in the Turtle Mountains, Guedesse paid $50 for a mixed buffalo cow, according to the St. John Centennial Book. The animal showed its buffalo ancestry and had black horns and a tuft of hair on its breast like a buffalo. It was tall and had long legs.

Guedesse had ridden steers when he lived in Canada and used his experiences to tame the animal, which he was eventually able to get close enough to milk, ride, and hitch up to a wagon along with his oxen for work. Sometimes he rode the animal like a horse, using a special bridle. The buffalo cow refused to let anyone else ride it. Once Guedesse met a cowboy who claimed he could ride anything.

Guedesse warned him that the buffalo cow might kill him if he tried to mount it, but the cowboy was determined to try. The buffalo cow threw the cowboy at once. The buffalo cow threw off Guedesse several times too and once Guedesse was thrown to the ground and lost two front teeth. That was the last time he rode the buffalo cow. The buffalo cow eventually met its end when it licked too much from a tub of salted butter at a neighbor’s farm, according to the centennial book.

Like many early settlers, the Guedesse family had a large family. Eight of their 14 children survived to adulthood. Many of the girls married young, much to their mother’s dismay. According to family lore, Delia Guedesse told one daughter’s suitor that he would not be allowed to leave his horses in the barn at their homestead while he was courting her daughter. Her efforts at slowing down the courtship were not successful. Her daughter, Rosa, married her suitor Ernest Dawson a week before her 17th birthday in 1920.

Their first child was born the following summer.

Submitted Photos

John Guedesse (above) and his wife, Delia Menard Guedesse (left), were among the earliest settlers in Rolette County.

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1-800-882-2500 www.nplains.com

MinotDailyNews.com • Hometown 2019

53

Founder of Mohall mohall

worked to bring the TOWN TO LIFE M.O. Hall began town, paper and more

By SHYANNE BELZER Staff Writer

F

rom the way they were founded to the people within them, every town and city in North Dakota has a story and history to tell. The history of the town of Mohall, placed in the northwestern part of the state, starts with a man named Martin O. Hall.

Originally from Duluth, Minn., Hall came to North Dakota in 1901. According to “Renville County History: 1901 - 1976,” he was a banker and businessman. He wanted to invest in and build a town and investigated several places before going to the area that would become Mohall.

Like many towns in North Dakota, the town of Mohall began as a way to bring the

54

Submitted Photos

TOP LEFT: M. O. Hall was the founder of Mohall. He first arrived in the area in 1901 and oversaw everything in the creation of Mohall.

ABOVE: Golmar Bros. Circus visited Mohall in 1915, putting on a parade through the town.

BELOW: This photo taken from “Renville County History: 1901-1976” shows the town of Mohall during its first few years.

railroad farther up north. Hall had made arrangements with the Soo Line officials to have the railroad run through the area if a town could be built and he got to work quickly.

One of the first buildings erected in the

Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

town of Mohall was built by Hall with the help of Louis, Ole and Martin Haugan. The building became first a newspaper office and a store and later, a post office. It was in this building that Hall began planning the growth of Mohall.

After the building was completed, Hall produced his first copy of “The Hall News” with the aid of Andrew Tiller. The first copy was printed in December 1901 and the newspaper quickly became recognized all around.

“Renville County History: 1901-1976” says, “The growth of the newspaper was remarkable. Within three months after the first issues, subscribers numbered more than 300 and at the end of 18 months the list of paid-up subscribers was almost 1,800.”

This massive growth led to the Rowell Newspaper Directory of the city of New York to award the paper the Honor Medal for two years in a row. The award was given to one newspaper in each state that showed the

largest increase in circulation.

In 1902, as the town began to grow and Hall began work to set-up the post office. He decided to try and name the town “Hall,” but the Postal Department rejected this name due to its similarity to another postal office called “Hull.”

The problem was fixed quickly though when Hall decided to just use his signature of M. O. Hall. He simply took out the periods and created the town’s name of Mohall.

From the start, Hall oversaw everything from gaining land for the town to the naming and getting a mail service arranged with the help of the townsfolk to getting a school and more.

In 1905, Hall was diagnosed with diabetes and he and his wife, Minnie, sold the town site and stepped down.

The city of Mohall continued to grow and became the County Seat of Renville in 1910.

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55

‘A lot of men and women have served this country and very faithfully. It just shows this is a very patriotic town.’

MAIN: A memorial to honor those who served their country was dedicated in 2017.

BELOW: M.C. Burnside, a member of Berthold’s ND Cares Committee, sits on one of the two benches that are part of the veterans memorial near Berthold City Hall.

– M.C. Burnside, Berthold ND Cares Committee

Photos by Jill Schramm/MDN

Remembering those who served berthold

Berthold honors its military with monument

56

By JILL SCHRAMM

Senior Staff Writer • jschramm@minotdailynews.com

M Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

embers of the Berthold community have shown a strong interest in serving their country over the years. To recognize those who have served, the community not only joined the state’s ND Cares program but has begun erecting a monument to honor its veterans and military service members.

“We have over 500 names since the founding of the town in 1900 to now,” Berthold ND Cares Committee member M.C. Burnside said of service members so far identified. Berthold’s current city population is esti-

mated at about 500.

“It’s a significant portion of our population that’s been veterans,” Burnside said. “A lot of men and women have served this country and very faithfully. It just shows this is a very patriotic town.”

The number of living veterans in the country has been estimated at less than 10% of the population, and one calculation made a few years ago lists 1.4% of women and 13% of men, or 7.3% of the total population, currently serve or are veterans.

The Berthold ND Cares Committee erected a monument and benches, dedicated May 29, 2017, next to City Hall. The monument, displaying the five military emblems, reads, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dedicated to all Berthold, ND, military veterans. All gave some. Some gave all. Freedom isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t free. Never forget their sacrifices.â&#x20AC;? The benches are engraved to say, â&#x20AC;&#x153;To honor those who served in the United States of America in war and peaceâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;And in memory of all who gave their lives in that service.â&#x20AC;?

The memorial also includes three flags

representing the United States, North Dakota and multi-service military.

Since the dedication, the committee has erected a fence around the monument area. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still a work in progress,â&#x20AC;? Burnside said this past summer.

The latest project involves planning and fundraising to erect walls with tiles featuring the names of those who served. The existing list of names includes veterans from World War I through the Gulf conflict as well as present-day active duty, including National Guard. It includes anyone who had a Berthold mailing address.

Bertholdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ND Cares Committee raised $38,000 for the initial work through donations and grants. It included collections from change jars throughout the community. The local American Legion and

Sportsmen Club held a breakfast fundraiser.

Burnside said itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just the construction but the ongoing maintenance that requires funding. Flags, which can be expensive, must be replaced every three months because of deterioration from being out in North Dakotaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s elements. The flags fly continuously, with lights illuminating them at night.

Burnside said the city not only offered land for the monument but donated $2,500 and pays the electric bill for lights.

Jeff Schmidt of Minot and Craigâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Monument in Velva did much of the monument installation work, with assistance from local volunteers. Volunteers also do the upkeep. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Most of the volunteer labor we have

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had has been veterans,â&#x20AC;? Burnside said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you let it go, the veterans will let you know.

They have ways of letting you know that something is amiss up here.â&#x20AC;?

Burnside, who served in the Navy and Coast Guard and was in Vietnam and Desert Storm, assists in looking after the memorial as well as in helping spearhead the project. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There were two goals that I had when we were doing it. One was to make it sort of a showplace here in town. And two to honor all our veterans,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Berthold became a ND Cares community about a year after the state began the program in 2015. Future information on the progress with the memorial and fundraising efforts can be found on the Facebook page of Berthold ND Cares Committee.

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MinotDailyNews.com â&#x20AC;˘ Hometown 2019

By KENT OLSON

Managing Editor • kolson@minotdailynews.com

R

iverdale, in McLean County, is known for many things, including for being a place where one can get away and relax in peace.

It wasn’t always that way.

The pace of life has changed in this one-time boomtown.

Riverdale is located above Government Bay on Lake Sakakawea. It was built between 1946 and 1950 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to house Corps workers involved in building nearby Garrison Dam. The stately brown brick officers’ homes still prominently line Missouri Drive, which overlooks the massive lake.

Other streets in Riverdale also bear the names of Missouri Basin states, such as Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa.

Built in a half-moon or wheel spoke design, Riverdale at its peak had a hospital, a school for elementary and high school students, a grocery store and outdoor swimming pool – even a bowling alley and a movie theater. With about 5,000 residents, Riverdale was a bustling town back then.

Today it has solitude.

Shortly after President Eisenhower visited Riverdale in June 1953 to celebrate the closure of Garrison Dam, the population of Riverdale began to slip. In the 2010 census the population was just over 200, not much different than it is today. Not included in those numbers, however, are the dedicated campers who fill the city-owned Morning Star Campground each May 15 through September.

The campground has 111 spaces for seasonal rent at $1,000 per site, and camp manager Terry Morast said the spots are highly prized. In fact, there is always a waiting list.

“We’ve had people coming back here for 18, 20 years,” he said. People like the “turn-key” way of camping, Morast said.

They like being able to pull into camp for the weekend – or the week – and their rigs and summer toys are waiting for them. So, many of the campers return year after year after year.

58

Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

Misty calls

Misty the Mermaid, a metal sculpture made by Tom Neary, has been welcoming visitors to Riverdale with an outstretched arm since 1990.

Kent Olson/MDN

riverdale

Riverdale’s Misty summons people to town with prettiest views in the state

Riverdale is a peaceful town, Morast said.

In his nine years at the campground he recalls only one time when the help of law enforcement was needed at the camp. A child got himself locked in a vehicle.

Morast and his wife, Kim, have been managing the campground for the past seven years and love the area. Especially the tranquillity.

“Extremely quiet,” he said. “No sirens going off at 2 in the morning.”

Morast especially loves the 9-hole municipal golf course that overlooks the lake.

“You have to say something about the golf course,” Morast said when asked how to describe Riverdale. “It has the prettiest views in the state.” Most of the holes have gorgeous views of the lake. It can get a little dry though, as the Corps still owns that land and doesn’t

permit irrigation. And the greens are artificial, which Morast says require a golfer to “play up” to the greens, not try to hit onto them.

Because of its proximity to Lake Sakakawea and the town’s majestic views in any direction, Riverdale could easily have been named anything from Sunrise to Sunset, or maybe just Tranquillity. That is actually how Riverdale got its name, through suggestions – a contest.

A call for potential names went out in 1946 and the name Riverdale was suggested

by Mrs. T.O Lervick of Granville. Some 20,000 people participated in the contest and 45 names were offered up. Lervick, however, won the contest and the $24 prize when her suggestion was accepted by the judges.

The land on which Riverdale sits was farmland, owned by Espy Ash for 44 years

until he sold it to the federal government in 1946. In about 1957, after Garrison Dam was complete, rumors that the government was going to sell Riverdale began to circulate. That never happened, but in September 1985 Riverdale became an incorporated city and the following year, on July 26, the Corps turned the deed for the property over to what was the youngest city in North Dakota.

Today, another name would also be appropriate for the city. Misty, for the statue of Misty the Mermaid located in the town’s center. The mermaid had been used in Riverdale’s logo since 1986, but a legend explaining the origin of Misty the Mermaid was dreamed up a little later by Bruce Bentz of Riverdale. The statue was designed by Wayne Pruse of Mandan and made by welder turned artist Tom Neary of Washburn who has many

fine works in towns all around the state.

Neary’s “Misty” was unveiled in 1990. She is 7 feet tall and her brass and stainless steel frame weighs 200 pounds, her glimmering eyes made of green agate.

Campground manager Morast, who lives in Bismarck with Kim the rest of the year – she is a summer weekender at the campground – has come to know many of the fulltime residents of Riverdale and they’ve become friends. Some of those friends started out as campers who decided to purchase houses in town because they enjoy Riverdale so much. “About one a year” in the last four or five years has made that jump, Morast said.

Morast has thought of doing the same someday.

“The town is a lovely town. I’d like to retire here,” he said.

Health and Beauty

MinotDailyNews.com • Hometown 2019

59

The Crossing

at Lake Metigoshe

Submitted photos

LEFT: This is the original bridge constructed over The Crossing at Lake Metigoshe.

Note the “Maid of Moonshine” painting at water level.

Bridge reflects history of the region

60

By KIM FUNDINGSLAND

Staff Writer • kfundingsland@minotdailynews.com

T

oday the road that passes over a bridge connecting opposite sides of The Narrows is traversed by many. The paved two-lane roadway has an interesting past, perhaps more interesting than many realize.

Much of the history of The Crossing is cloaked in secrecy that, essentially, adds a wonderful bit of intrigue to a simple stretch of paved road that is otherwise indistinguishable from any other roadway in the state.

The Narrows was the name given long ago to an opening connecting what is the present day north and south sections of Lake Metigoshe. Prior to 1917 there

Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

was no roadway, no bridge. Just two separate lakes joined by a narrow waterway. On the north side of the narrows was Hart Island, named for the family that was among the first settlers of the region. Hart Island was about two acres in size.

It wasn’t until 1915 that Bottineau county commissioners were approached by citizens who wanted a bridge built over The Narrows to allow for easier and quicker commuting in the region. Commissioners agreed. The first bridge across The Narrows was completed in August, 1918.

With the building of the bridge the designation of Hart Island quickly faded.

Today what used to be known as Hart Island is the land between the public boat ramp and fishing area

lake metigoshe

ABOVE: The “Maid of Moonshine” as she appears at The Crossing today.

Today’s bridge at The Crossing was built in 1996. A new “Maid of Moonshine” was commissioned for the bridge.

Submitted photo

near The Narrows and the bridge referred to as The Crossing.

Sometime in the late 1920s a sign appeared on a concrete support at the southwest corner of the bridge. Visible from water level, it showed a women dressed in the popular one-piece bathing suit of the day and bore the inscription “Maid of Moonshine.” There-in lies a bit of historical intrigue that has long been associated and assumed, but perhaps not entirely verified, that The Crossing played an integral role in the illegal liquor trade.

Was the “Maid of Moonshine” named for the crescent moon she was holding or for illegal “moonshine” movement during the prohibition era?

Alcohol was prohibited from 1920 to 1933, but the “Maid of Moonshine” may have witnessed countless violations of federal law. It is believed by some that bootleggers drove loads of illegal liquor over The Crossing bridge. Others say boats loaded with moonshine, perhaps coming from Chicago and down through Canada, crossed under the bridge. Both stories are plausible.

The north section of Lake Metigoshe reaches across the border into Canada.

Early stories from the Metigoshe region called the Turtle Mountains, where Lake Metigoshe is located, as “rum-runner and moonshiner heaven” and noted that bootlegging “rose to the level of a sporting event.”

It was during that period of history that the “Maid of Moonshine” became a symbol liked by some and despised by others. The “Maid” would remain a part of the history of the location, but not without encountering some tough opposition.

In 1958 the bridge at The Crossing had weathered and aged and was in need of replacement. The destruction of the 1918 bridge to make way for a new one meant that the “Maid of Moonshine” would meet her demise too. Alas, she wasn’t gone forever!

Some enterprising artists determined to bring the “Maid of Moonshine” back to the new bridge. They did so on a large piece of plywood. However, in 1972 the “Maid” was stolen. She was found later, partially burned, on an island in Lake Metigoshe.

In 1981 the “Maid” returned to the bridge, having been painted by a local artist. Not long after her appearance the sign once again went missing. This time it was recovered several miles away in a shelterbelt. One ver-

sion of the missing “Maid” story has her being returned to the bridge in 1985. But there were even more precarious and storied days to come in the history of the “Maid.”

In the mid-1990s a tragic accident occurred at The Crossing when a vehicle crashed through a wooden guard rail and plunged into Lake Metigoshe. Two girls were killed. The tragedy prompted the need for a new and wider bridge, which was constructed in 1996.

Excavation was done and the bridge made wide enough to allow for two-way boat traffic underneath it, greatly alleviat-

ing previous problems by boats encountering each other on the water below the bridge. Additionally, there was more room for traffic on the bridge, including a walking path.

But what about the “Maid of Moonshine?” By 1996 she was considered a tradition, part of the region’s heritage. A new “Maid of Moonshine” was commissioned and installed on the new bridge. She was given a more contemporary look too, sporting flowing hair and seated in a crescent moon. It is that “Maid of Moonshine” that remains on The Crossing today.

VERENDRYE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE Minot/Velva 701-852-0406 or 1-800-472-2141 www.verendrye.com

MinotDailyNews.com • Hometown 2019

61

Westhope was a bustling town in the early 1900s.

Submitted Photo

BIG MOMENTS Westhope has a long history filled with big moments

62

By SHYANNE BELZER Staff Writer

F

rom the people who inhabit it to the events that are memorable throughout history, every town, both big and small, has a story and a history to share.

The city of Westhope is one of 12 towns in Bottineau County.

According to the “About Us” page on City of Westhope’s website, the town of Westhope officially began in 1903, but the origins of the town began five years earlier in a community called Richburg.

Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

In 1898, the city of Richburg in Richburg Township was platted. According to the “About Us” page, “The immigrants of Richburg saw potential in their new world and named the “rich” land they had journeyed too, to symbolize their dreams of a more prosperous life.”

A year later, August Soucice established the first business when he opened the General Store and in 1900, Jules Beaudoin was stationed as the community’s first postmaster after the Richburg Post Office was established.

westhope

of a small town

RIGHT: Here the Westhope H.S. band and citizens prepare to celebrate the embarkment of the first train containing oil from Westhope.

BELOW: The Harris Confectionary, the inside shown here, was opened in 1909 in Westhope.

Photos taken from “This Land of Mine” by Leonard and Bette Lodeon

“During the next three years the town of Richburg grew and became an “up and coming” community in the western part of Bottineau County,” the “About Us” page said.

In 1903, the Great Northern Railroad purchased a townsite that was located one and a half miles east of Richburg. They encouraged residents of Richburg and two other small communities in the area to move to this new town, named Westhope, where they would run a train through.

That fall, the residents purchased land and moved into the new town, officially starting the history of Westhope.

“This Land of Mine,” written by Leonard and Bette Lodoen, shared more of the history of the area and of Westhope, saying, “Westhope started out with a bang and it’s been more or less bustling ever since.”

The town faced both hardships and successes alike. According to “This Land of Mine,” following a disappointing run with natural gas around 1907, electricity was brought to the area in 1914.

A year later, The Arcade, a movie theater, was open, bringing new entertainment for residents to enjoy.

“This land of Mine,” said, “At first there was only one projector which made it necessary for patrons to wait between reels while the projector was reloaded.”

Later a sound system was added to accompany the old movies.

While natural gas ran out quickly in the area, Westhope had a second chance when the oil boom hit in the ‘50s. According to “This Land of Mine,” it created a surge of activity that was unmatched by since the towns founding days.

The town continued to work hard and thrive, bringing new amenities, services, and stores to the area. According to the Minot Daily News records, Westhope joined the world of cable watchers when the Souris River Telephone Mutual Aid Corporation brought it to the area in 1981.

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Peoples State Bank Proud To Be of Service To The Westhope Community Since 1906 701-245-6407 MinotDailyNews.com • Hometown 2019

63

&

good people

Former Tioga workers recall early days in ND oil industry

tioga

HARD WORK ABOVE: Don Sillerud, Neil Olson and Phil Becker of Tioga are retired from careers in the oilfield.

Jill Schramm/MDN

By JILL SCHRAMM

LEFT: Just talking things over at a Bakken well near Tioga in this photo from the State Historical Society of North Dakota (10958034A-022-00002) Submitted Photo

Senior Staff Writer • jschramm@minotdailynews.com

L

ife as an oil worker in the early days of drilling in northwestern North Dakota wasn’t easy, according to retirees whose careers spanned many years in the area’s oilfields.

Cold weather, long hours and few technologies to ease the hand labor were among challenges faced by workers, who didn’t necessarily rake in any exceptional pay for their efforts.

Phil Becker, 84, Don Sillerud, 83, and Neil Olson, 79, of Tioga recall starting at the bottom in the industry in the 1950s. North Dakota’s first producing well, the Clarence Iverson No. 1, came on line in April 1951 near Tioga.

“There wasn’t much else for work around,” said Sillerud, who grew up in McGregor. “I was 16 when I started roustabouting for oil field services. My dad had to sign for me to go to work.”

Becker came to the area from Minnesota in 1957 after getting out of the Army. He went to work for R.A. Prather & Sons, a well servicing company, and worked on workover rigs to complete drilled wells.

“You worked seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day.

There was no time off, regardless if it was cold, windy or what. You went to work,” he said. “It was a lot of work. It was hard work.”

Workers would spend weeks on site without days off, doing their cooking and laundry there. There was no running to the convenience store for sandwiches, either. They ate the sandwiches, frozen in the winter, that they had with them.

Because the machines of today didn’t exist, all the work was done by hand. A lot of digging was done with pick and shovel, even in the winter with frozen ground. They would dig a hole to anchor the drilling rig about six feet by two feet by six feet deep. A pipe with cable was lowered that was anchored to the rig. Then the hole was filled again.

“They didn’t have anything like a backhoe back then,” Sillerud said.

“You laid a lot of pipe. You had to screw it in by hand. It was a lot of work,” Becker added.

64

Today’s drilling bits that last the life of a drilling project have replaced bits that used to wear out in a day. It also took much longer than today to drill a well.

“At first, the majority of the wells were drilled to about 8,500 feet,” Becker said. “It took at least a month. It’s much different now.”

Sillerud said today’s wells can be drilled 10,000 feet down and horizontal in 20 days.

Sillerud went to work for Hunt Oil Co. in 1962 and worked there for 18 years. He eventually went into consulting.

“I worked for a welder and we laid pipeline after pipeline. Even went across the river one time,” Sillerud said. He recalled they pushed the assembled pipe out on barrels that were wired together until the pipe stretched across the river. Then they went out on boats to cut the wire so the pipe could drop to the bottom of the river.

“We’ve got better ways of doing it now,” Sillerud said.

Becker worked for Amerada for 12 years and Texakota for almost 30 years, drilling wells in various formations.

“In 1976 I completed a well in what’s called the Bakken now. I fracked it and it started flowing on me, and I told a geologist for Amerada in Williston in ‘76 that this Bakken has got a lot of potential. He told me, ‘Phil, it will never amount to nothing. It’s too tight,’” Becker laughed.

Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

Submitted Photo

The completion of the Clarence Iverson well south of Tioga in 1951 triggered a surge of oil activity in western North Dakota as shown in this photo from the State Historical Society of North Dakota (10958-0019-036-00001).

Oil boomed again in North Dakota in the 1970s, spurred into the 1980s by the introduction of horizontal drilling. With advanced horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the Bakken became one of the nation’s hottest plays several years ago.

“You never had a dry hole as long as you drilled it horizontal in the Bakken,” Sillerud said. “There are no dry holes anymore.”

The former oil workers remember the “sour” gas that would come off oil tanks back in the day when people took less concern over the environment and safety. Sillerud tells of getting too much of the hydrogen sulfide from a tank and fainting on a walkway until fresh air brought him around.

“It was nothing to see a bunch of birds dead on top of a tank,” Sillerud said.

Olson, who grew up in the Tioga area, spent

40 years in the oilfield, starting with Lawrence Transportation and later Halliburton and Amerada. Driving truck was his specialty but he also ran water plants and did other jobs.

“Back in the ’50s, we used to move drilling rigs down Main Street here. It was nothing but gravel,” Olson said.

Equipment, whether for drilling or trucking, improved over the years.

“We used to have junk – hand me downs.

We would go to Mississippi and get an oil truck down there that had 500,000 (miles) on it and you drove it back to Tioga, then you ran it for about five years,” Olson said. “When I was working for Lawrence we loaded drilling rigs on the flat cars down here. They hauled them to Alaska, 1959 to 1961. They worked there for years.”

Olson went to work in the oil field right after

his high school graduation.

“That’s the only jobs that were around here,” he said. Without oilfield employment, he said, “We would have had to leave. We wouldn’t have been able to stay here.”

The former workers remember starting pay of $1.10 to $1.36 an hour back in the late 1950s.

Becker recalled making $2.20 an hour in 1962.

“The only time we made money in those days was because we had overtime. We worked 14 hours a day. You get paid overtime and make little more money,” he said.

Despite the long days and less than stellar pay, they enjoyed their jobs.

“You got to know a lot of people and make friends from everywhere. They came up here from Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. When I first got here in ’57 that’s where a lot of people came from – down south,” Becker said.

“And good people,” Olson added. “You worked with a good crew, and you worked that much harder when everyone did their share.”

Many of the workers stayed in the area, although enough years have passed that fewer and fewer are left to tell their stories.

Some of those old wells are still pumping, though. According to the N.D. Oil & Gas Division, the handful of producing wells from the 1950s still operating are in the Madison Formation. The oldest are two wells drilled in 1954 in the Tioga Madison unit. Those wells had stopped production but were re-started once horizontal drilling technology became available.

The oldest Bakken well still producing dates to 1963 in the Northwest McGregor Field in Williams County.

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Parshall For more information, call (701) 862-3264 or email pbrostemuseum@hotmail.com

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parshall

Discovery of Parshall Field a

CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT for Michael S. Johnson

This was the discovery well, EOG Resources’ Parshall 1-36H, for the Parshall Field. It spud in May 2006.

Submitted Photo

Johnson & EOG Resources set off drilling boom in ND Bakken

H

is name isn’t a household name in the Parshall area but Michael S. Johnson is recognized internationally for his involvement in discovering the Parshall Field and setting off the drilling boom for the Bakken

By ELOISE OGDEN • Regional Editor • eogden@minotdailynews.com oil play in North Dakota.

A geologist and oil man from Denver, Johnson had the idea to follow the geologic trends of Montana’s Elm Coulee Field, a field with success starting in 2000 with horizontal drilling in the Bakken reservoir. He searched for a field similar to the Montana and found it in North Dakota’s Mountrail County, according to

hartenergy.com.

Stephan Nordeng, staff geologist for the North Dakota Geological Survey, wrote in a January 2010 report: “Michael Johnson noticed that wireline logs of the middle Bakken in Mountrail County resembled those from the Elm Coulee Field in Montana. Even though the See OIL — Page 68

MinotDailyNews.com • Hometown 2019

67

Oil

Continued from Page 67

organic matter in the Bakken shales appeared (to be immature), the recovery of free oil in drillstem tests and some minor production led Johnson to pursue a Bakken play in Mountrail County.”

“In his analysis, Johnson looked at an old Gulf Oil well where the Ross Field now stands.

It had promising potential in the Middle Bakken Dolomite between upper and lower shale areas,” a June 2009 E&P article said. “He also looked at a Lear oil well at the site of Parshall Field. On the strength of information from those two wells, he and a partner bought 40,000 acres in the area. In 2005 he was the only bidder for the area in the state land sale, and he picked up properties for about $3 per acre.”

EOG Resources drilled the first horizontal well in the Ross Field in northern Mountrail County in 2005, making a discovery there, followed by another in the Parshall Field, several miles south, in 2006 “in a unique trap at the intersection of the basin’s thermal maturity and

immaturity,” Western Energy Alliance noted when Johnson was inducted in its Rocky Mountain Hall of Fame in 2009.

Born in 1926 to Greek immigrant parents,

Iverson 1 in April 1951. Johnson also worked for Apache Oil Corporation before becoming an independent petroleum geologist, started his own consulting firm in 1963, focusing on the

“We ended up helping to discover Parshall oil field, covering 6 million acres, with oil reserves of 15 billion barrels ...”

—Michael S. Johnson Johnson’s family moved to Tulsa, Okla., a city proclaimed the oil capital of the United States, in 1931. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from Ohio State University, spent two years in the Army and then began his more than six decades of oil business career, according to The National Herald. First he worked for The Amerada Petroleum Corporation assigned to its office in Williston. While Johnson was in the military, Amerada made the first oil discovery in North Dakota with its Clarence

Williston Basin.

Johnson is recognized for his contribution to the discovery of the Parshall Field.

In an interview published in NEO magazine, a magazine featuring prominent Greek Americans, he said he initiated the horizontal drilling technique in a new area in North Dakota and his idea was it would work.

“We ended up helping to discover Parshall oil field, covering 6 million acres, with oil reserves of 15 billion barrels – drilling vertically

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Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

9,000 feet and then turn the drill to go horizontally in the rock layer with oil – one mile down and 2 miles sideways,” he said in an interview, adding, “I got the awards using that technology.

Johnson said in an email to the Minot Daily News that North Dakota has “the best oil and gas commission in the Rockies, very capably headed by Lynn Helms.” Helms is director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources. N.D. Oil and Gas Division is a division of the Mineral Resources Department.

Besides induction in Western Energy Alliance’s Rocky Mountain Hall of Fame, Johnson has been honored for his work including the Explorer of the Year Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists.

In his 2012 autobiography, “Abscurity to Success in the Oil Business: Discovery of Parshall Oil field in North Dakota,” Johnson related his story of achieving the American dream and helping to secure America’s energy future, according to information. The discovery of the Parshall Oil Field was a crowning achievement among his other accomplishments.

new town

SUPER ACTION ACROSS THE WATER

Hydroplane races big event near New Town in ‘64

By ELOISE OGDEN

Regional Editor • eogden@minotdailynews.com

F

or many it’s long forgotten or a fading memory. Others may have never known about it. But 55 years ago just west of New Town on Garrison Reservoir, as news reports at the time referred to Lake Sakakawea, became the site of one of the biggest events in the state – hydroplane races.

For those who aren’t familiar with hydroplanes, they’re the huge crafts, each weighing several tons and powered by engines from World War II fighter planes.The boats literally run on water when they reach racing speeds MDN File Photo up to some 175 mph.

Thousands of people turned out for the first unlimited hydroplane races ever MAIN: Miss Exide, at left, sending up a huge rooster tail behind held in the Upper Midwest and in a state known for its wheat and not this type it, is shown on the course near New Town in time trials for the of boats racing across the water.

Dakota Cup Regatta held in July 1964.

The idea to hold hydroplane races in North Dakota goes to C.B. Greene, a then Eloise Ogden/MDN 42-year-old Williston oil product distributor who was a devout fan of the sport.

INSET: This photo shows the July 27, 1964, Minot Daily News story and photos about the hydroplane races.

See RACES — Page 70

MinotDailyNews.com • Hometown 2019

69

Races

Continued from Page 69

He decided bringing hydroplane races to North Dakota would help the tourist trade in the state.

Greene persuaded businessmen in surrounding towns to join him in forming a nonprofit corporation, the Dakota Cup Association, and the planning to hold hydroplane races was well on the way, the Minot Daily News reported.

“This is an opportunity to place North Dakota in the spotlight of the nation,” the newspaper reported Greene said.

Hydroplane officials looked to North Dakota and New Town, a city still in its infancy, for their 1964 Dakota Cup Regatta.

One of the big questions, according to the Minot Daily News, though was: Will enough hydroplane fans come to this remote area to see the race?

Greene and other backers thought the races would bring in many people, the newspaper reported. Greene said they needed crowds of about 25,000 the first day and 30,000 the second day so they could clear around $20,000 in pre-race expenses and $21,000 in prize money.

A $10,000 dock for the races was about completed when it was learned the water level in the reservoir would be higher than planned so they had to raise the 500-foot dock another 5 feet, the Minot Daily News reported.

“We’re working out things as we go along,” Stanley Simon, New Town automobile salesman and Chamber of Commerce chairman, told the Minot Daily News. “And we’re finding answers to problems we didn’t even anticipate.”

The then 2,200 members of the three Fort Berthold Reservation tribes – Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara – were planning to join the activities and stage a series of authentic Indian dances as a revenue

70

Thousands of people turned out for the first unlimited hydroplane races ever held in the Upper Midwest.

MDN File Photos

ABOVE: This is an overall scene of the dock area where the aircraft enginepowered hydroplane boats were serviced west of New Town circa July 1964.

RIGHT: Miss Minot Connie Balsukot poses with Miss Exide, one of the hydroplanes to participate in the Dakota Cup Regatta.

Hometown 2019 • MinotDailyNews.com

raiser of their own, according to the newspaper.

Prior to the races set for July 25-26, 1964, one of the huge hydroplanes, named Miss Exide, was displayed at various locations in Minot including Oak Park and Arrowhead shopping centers, a baseball diamond where it was shown during a televised baseball game, Ramada Inn and Roosevelt Park.

The plan on the days of the races was to run the boats in 30-mile heats over a three-mile course just south of Four Bears Bridge, west of New Town.

Eleven hydroplanes were brought to North Dakota for the event, according to news reports. The boats had various names including Miss Budweiser, Tahoe Miss, Miss Smirnoff, Mariner Too, Saviar’s Mist, Miss Madison, Miss Eagle Electric, Gale V., Miss Bardahl, Miss Notre Dame. And boats and racers came from across the country including Nevada, Michigan, Washington, Florida and Indiana.

The Associated Press reported qualifying runs for the Dakota Cup Regatta got under way on Friday. Miss Eagle Electric won the honor of being the first hydroplane in North Dakota waters when it was lowered by a crane into the reservoir that morning.

Due to the wind that day, several drivers complained the wind blew buoys out of position and lengthened the course by about a mile, and regatta officials ordered a new survey made before Saturday’s start. Blowing dust also worried some of the boat crews, and plans were made to sprinkle water around the dock area Saturday morning to keep dirt out of the finely tuned 3,500-horsepower engines.

Around 1,000 people watched the practice runs that Friday.

At the end of the two days of races, Ron Musson driving “Miss Bardahl,” won the race, taking home $6,000 in prize money, the Associated reported in a story published in the Minot Daily News.

Spectators were sprawled along about two miles of the sweeping reservoir shoreline to watch the races. The boats raced at speeds over 165 mph as they ran the threemile course of confined Missouri River water just west of New Town before a backdrop of western North Dakota bluffs.

“It was an uphill battle all the way for Musson in the final heat. He won with an average speed of 104.408 miles an hour in the final 15-mile race,” the newspaper said. “Musson made his comeback only after Chuck Thompson, driving Tahoe Miss from Nevada, blew a supercharger while holding an apparently unbeatable lead.”

The news report said Miss Bardahl’s 1,200 total race points far outdistanced second place Miss Madison of Madison, Ind., driven by Buddy Byers.

The races were proclaimed a “roaring success.”

Actual attendance at the races wasn’t known but the two-day attendance was estimated at over 85,000 people and may have even been as high as 100,000 – the largest crowd ever gathered for one event in the history of North Dakota up to that time, “Tales of Mighty Mountrail, Volume II, a Mountrail County history book, reported.

Plans were made to hold another race in the summer of 1965 and the hydroplanes arrived for the 1965 Dakota Cup Regatta, but Mother Nature was not on their side.

All those gathered at the area waited for strong winds to die down on Saturday and again Sunday. The American Power Boat Association officials finally called off the races. The races were never attempted again.

Photos by Eloise Ogden/MDN

ABOVE and BELOW: Lake Sakakawea west of New Town was the site of hydroplane races in 1964.

The Four Bears Bridge provided the crossing over the Missouri River for many years, including in 1964.

MinotDailyNews.com • Hometown 2019

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By KIM FUNDINGSLAND

posts. His exploits included his first major surveying expedition in 1792.

Staff Writer kfundingsland@minotdailynews.com The early day surveyor mapped a route from southern Saskatchewan to ong before Velva Lake Athabasca in the far north of the became a settle- province. The effort greatly pleased ment the land was the Hudson Bay Company that relied explored and on the profitable fur trade.

In 1797 Thompson took the unmapped. The man credited with doing precedented step of leaving the Hudso is David Thompson. A marvelous son Bay Company to join the rival monument to his early efforts was North West company. In that capacity dedicated to him in 1925 and remains he was tasked with surveying parts of in a remote location over looking the the United States/Canada border from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods.

Souris River Valley.

In the wake of the famed Lewis The land where the monument is placed was donated by the Great and Clark expedition Thompson’s Northern Railroad in recognition of employer assigned him to find a betThompson, who has been described ter route to the Pacific Ocean, which as the “greatest land geographer who would open up the Pacific Northwest ever lived.” Thompson was known to fur trade. His resulting map over the have been in the Velva region during Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast a historic mapping expedition in 1797 and down the entire length of the massive Columbia River was near and 1798.

Thompson’s history includes em- perfection. Thompson’s map from ployment as a clerk with the Hudson 1807 would be used well into the Bay Company and also as a fur trader. 20th century.

The inscription on the David He established several fur trading

L

Velva

David Thompson Monument

Thompson Monument references him as being in that area in 1797 and 1798. His efforts as surveying and mapmaking were so appreciated that it led to recognition on several fronts, including the remote monument near Velva.

Thompson’s mapmaking covered nearly 2 million square miles of land on the North American continent. In 1957 his work was recognized by the Canadian government with a postage stamp in his honor, 100 years after his death. Thompson Falls in Montana is named after the famed surveyor. So too is the Thompson River in British Columbia. In 2018 Thompson was remembered again, this time with his name on a Parks Canada research vessel.

Thompson was born in England in 1770 and received his education at a mathematical school. At age 14 he was sent to North America for further training with the Hudson Bay Company. From there he began one of the most famous careers ever known on

Kim Fundingsland/MDN

The David Thompson Monument is a large granite globe sitting atop an overlook of the Souris River Valley. The impressive monument is located off a gravel road northeast of Velva. the wild frontier.

The David Thompson Monument that sits inside a chain link fence midway between Velva and Karlsruhe, is an impressive testament to

the history and heritage of the region.

It is a remarkable and lasting tribute to a man who ventured into the unknown and recorded it for future generations.

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Naming

TOWNS

There’s a story behind every town’s name

By ELOISE OGDEN

Regional Editor eogden@minotdailynews.com Many towns in North Dakota were named for people, often the name of the postmaster of that particular town, a homesteader or someone affiliated with the railroad. But the names of towns also came from other sources.

Powers Lake

Powers Lake, also in Burke County, was named for a pioneer and rancher, John Powers, who homesteaded on the lake shore.

See TOWNS — Page 76

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Towns

Continued from Page 75

Max

Max, along U.S. Highway 83 in McLean County, at one time was to be named Junction or Junction City. Instead it was named Max for the oldest son of the first postmaster, Paul Freitag, according to the Max Golden Jubilee book, 1906-1956. The first post office was located on the Freitag farm. The story goes when people would go to the Freitag post office to get their mail that Max, a small boy at the time, would ask if they came there to get their mail. People got into the habit of calling it Max’s post office and the name stuck when the post office was moved to the new townsite in 1906.

Underwood

Down the road from Max, Underwood wasn’t named for its postmaster. Instead it was named for a railroad man.

General W.D. Washburn, the townsite owner and builder of the Bismarck, Washburn and Great Falls Railroad (later Soo Line) that reached Underwood in 1902 named the

Eloise Ogden/MDN

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town for his friend and associate Fred D. Underwood of Enderlin, vice president of the railroad, according to Mary Ann Barnes Williams, who did extensive research on the origins of North Dakota place names and compiled her information into a book.

Williston

Williston, in Williams County, was named by James J. Hill, builder and first president of the Great Northern Railway, for his friend S. Willis James of New York City, according to Williams. James was one of the stockholders of the company and with whom Hill had just made a routine trip to the area in Dakota Territory. Williston was first known as Little Muddy.

A street scene shows a modern Williston, named for a railroad stockholder.

MAX

File Photo

See TOWNS â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Page 78

Underwood MinotDailyNews.com â&#x20AC;˘ Hometown 2019

77

Towns

Continued from Page 77

Bowbells

Initially Bowbells, in Burke County, was a railroad station. It was named by English stockholders of the Soo Line Railroad in 1896 for the famous Bow Bells in St. Mary-le-Bow Church in London, according to Williams.

Washburn

Farther south, Washburn, founded by John Satterlund and John S. Veeder, homesteaders from Wisconsin, established the town in 1882 and named it for Cadwallader Colden Washburn, governor of Wisconsin, 1872-1874. Washburn was a Civil War veteran and member of Congress whom they knew personally, according to Williams’ research. She said the Washburn Times stated these facts in its May 24, 1882, edition. She also noted there’s confusion about Washburn being named for Gen. W.D. Washburn, a brother of C.C., who became prominent 18 years later when he founded Wilton, opened the Washburn Lignite Coal Mines there and extended the Bismarck, Washburn & Great Falls Railroad to Washburn in 1901.

File Photo

The Bowbells Hotel, built in 1929, is a bed and breakfast style boutique hotel today.

s ll e b w Bo

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Crosby Crosby, in Divide County, was named after S.A. Crosby, a partner in the firm of Haffie & Crosby at Portal, who selected the original Crosby townsite, known as Old Crosby, and a mile west of the present site.

When the Great Northern Railroad reached the area, it bypassed Crosby by a mile or so and a new townsite was platted. A number of people moved to the Great Northern townsite and continued to use the name Crosby, according to Williams. She learned that Crosby was replatted and renamed Crosby Revised to accommodate itself to the junction of the Soo and Great Northern branch lines but the second word is seldom used.

Upham

Again residents and railroad officials were responsible for the naming of another town, Upham. Williams reported Upham was a Great Northern station before it was incorporated as a village in 1908. Upham was named for Dr. Warren Upham, an archaeologist who was head of an early (1870-1876) geological survey through the state and widely known as the author of the monograph â&#x20AC;&#x153;Glacial Lake Agassiz.â&#x20AC;?

See TOWNS â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Page 80

File Photo

Crosby Crosby

The Divide County Courthouse is located in Crosby.

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Towns

Continued from Page 79

Granville

The Great Northern Railroad once again played a part in the naming of another McHenry County town, Granville, founded in 1886, according to Williams. It was named for Granville M. Dodge, a civil engineer with the Great Northern Railroad who later was connected with the U.P.R.R. where he made a notable record in his work.

Carrington

Established in 1882, Carrington in Foster County was named for M.D. Carrington, vice president and general manager of the Carrington and Casey Co. In the summer of 1882 the company bought for $168,380 around 30,000 acres of railroad land in this area and in Wells County, where they operated a bonanza farm south of the townsite. They platted, named and gave sites for a public park, school, churches and the Foster County Courthouse, according to Williams.

Towner

Towner, in McHenry County, established in the 1880s, was named by local residents and railroad townsite officials for Col. Oscar M. Towner, a Civil War Confederate soldier who was a promoter and land speculator and one of the earliest ranchers in the area. Before he took up residence at Towner, he was a member of the Territorial Legislature of 1883 and a bonanza farmer in Grand Forks County, according to Williams.

Every community has a story and these are just a few of the stories about area communities and how they got their names.

File Photo

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Chris Schelling Elevator Manager 701.557.3700 Ext. 726 Jason Smette Plant Manager 701.557.3700 Ext. 712

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