The Forgotten Battle of Whitestone Hill, North Dakota
Monday, July 31 2023
My first stop was the lonely Whitestone Hill, a grass hill in south central, North Dakota. It is the site of the bloodiest battle in North Dakota history in 1863.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
A Quest for an Ancient Tree
Friday, June 16 2023
I co-led a hike in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park recently. There were about a dozen of us. Our goal was a very old cottonwood tree in an obscure corner of the park down by the Little Missouri River. The tree is said to date to 1641.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
The Unnamed, Unheralded Falls of North Dakota
Saturday, June 10 2023
Geographers say North Dakota has only one waterfall. It’s a waterfall without a name, over in Ransom County, near the Minnesota border. For twenty years I have wanted to go see it.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Thunderstorms, Cottonwoods on the Great Plains
Thursday, June 01 2023
Typically we don’t get genuine punishing thunderstorms until after Memorial Day. I sat in a camp chair on the porch and studied the sky.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road