SCHMID: LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST - FEBRUARY 17, 2014
The Grand Forks Lamoureux twins were UND hockey players who starred at the last winter olympics in Vancouver. The sisters are again on Team USA and more popular than ever. The GF Herald reports the twins are the subject of stories in Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated, and were interviewed on the Today Show.
A tale of two cities. A headline in the Herald read “Lamoureuxs lead rout of Swiss.” A headline in the Minneapolis StarTribune read “USA women defeat Switzerland behind strong showing from Kessel's line.” Amanda Kessel was a star player on the Minnesota women’s hockey team. The StarTrib article only briefly mentioned the Lamoureuxs, who played for Minnesota, but left to complete their college hockey careers at UND.
Oops! Last week I said ND became a state in February 1889. Not so, statehood was authorized then, but wasn’t official until November 1889. Snuff out the birthday candles. It’s as if the pregnancy was announced in February and the birth took place in November.
ND’s U.S. senators have different styles. Sen. John Hoeven tends to work quietly behind the scenes on major legislative issues affecting ND’s economy, such as the farm bill, pipelines, military bases and drones. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp has a much more populist style and is constantly in the news attending high visibility events and writing newspaper letters. This last week she was in Cuba promoting ND ag products and farm machinery. She also wrote a letter to the state’s newspapers highlighting her efforts on the farm bill: “I Spend countless hours working to convince other senators” and “I was proud this week to achieve this goal.” Heitkamp has been a senator a little over a year, but already seems to be in campaign mode.
“The odds against a Grand Forks casino may be 100 to 1.” -- Excerpt from a 2004 editorial in the GF Herald. This week the chairman of the Turtle Mt. Band of Chippewa said they are “the largest tribe in North Dakota, but also the poorest.” Tribal representatives were in GF to renew their casino proposal. Among many challenges, a casino in GF would require a change in state law and a massive change in public attitude.
Just a few years ago, Minot’s economy was fragile, held together by the Air Force Base. Now, the oil boom and a strong ag industry have materially improved the economy of the Minot area. The AFB is still “big dog” -- the Air Force estimates the base has nearly a $600 million economic impact. MAFB is the only base with dual nuclear capability -- bombers and missiles. The base has 13,000 personnel, a catchall that includes families and military civilians.
Minot was always a railroad town -- two lines of BNSF (formerly Great Northern) converge there and the Canadian Pacific (formerly Soo Line) also runs through Minot. An average of 40 trains pass through Minot daily -- many are 110 cars (over a mile) in length. The BNSF rail yard in Minot has six tracks used primarily to stage oil trains.
They’re called “man camps,” but their operators prefer the term “workforce housing.” Whichever, ND has a lot of them. One operator, Target Logistics, has over 4,000 beds in the state -- 12 of its 16 camps are in ND.
A Louisiana man was killed west of New Town when he carelessly passed a semi and had collisions with that semi, an oncoming semi and a pickup. Christopher Beach of Carrington, driver of the oncoming semi, was the only ND driver in the four-vehicle accident. Another example of the high proportion of out-of-state drivers in traffic accidents in western ND.
Editorials in the Fargo Forum, as they should, often shed light on public issues. But every now and then, the Forum has an editorial that does the opposite, obscures an issue and exercises Jack Zalecki’s lexicon of insults. An editorial this week attempted to discuss internal issues at the ND Farm Bureau. The NDFB was accused of “Janus-like (two-faced) performances, ham-handed incompetence, hubristic notions,” and “less than Olympic class” swimming skills -- all of this leading to “smirk-worthy irony.”
The Greatest Generation is a much deserved accolade given primarily to veterans of World War II. Less recognition is given to their brothers and sisters who relocated to work in WWII defense plants. This is particularly true in ND, where obituaries document a sizable migration to defense plants on the West Coast. Most returned after the war, but a few found permanent homes on the coast. Bob Swanson (91) from the Grand Forks area was part of the migration. His obituary indicates he worked at two large defense establishments: Boeing Aircraft in Seattle and the Richmond shipyards (a builder of Liberty Ships) on San Francisco Bay. At the conclusion of the war, Swanson returned home to farm with his brothers in the Red River Valley.
The late Frank Schroeder (89) of West Fargo was also a member of that generation. He grew up at a time of large families and little schooling. Frank had 20 siblings and finished school at the eighth grade. He was deferred from the draft because he had older brothers in the military. Frank never strayed far from West Fargo and outlasted all his siblings.
It’s not wise to invest in new, rapidly emerging industries until you can identify the survivors. Northwest Minnesota is possibly the snowmobile capital of the world. In the early 1970s, there were nearly 130 brands; today, only four brands survive -- Polaris, Arctic Cat, Ski-Doo and Yamaha. Polaris and Arctic were founded in Thief River Falls. Nearly 70 snowmobiles were displayed at a vintage show in East Grand Forks.
DAKTOIDS: What’s the most popular destination for people moving from Hennepin County (Minneapolis)? Cass County (Fargo).
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