North Dakota
As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, North Dakota joins the nation in commemorating the people, places and traditions that have shaped our country. As one of 50 states, North Dakota has its own collection of official symbols that reflect the landscapes, wildlife, agriculture and history that make our state unique.
This summer, take a road trip through 250 years of history without ever leaving North Dakota.
On July 1, “ND 250 Road Trip: Our American Story” opens in the Touchstone Energy® Cooperatives Governors Gallery at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck. The exhibit traces the state’s history from 1776 to 2026.
From the rolling row crops in the east to the rugged wheatfields of the west, North Dakota’s electric cooperatives have a top priority for everyone in the field: ensuring every farmer returns home safely.
Power lines are necessary to deliver electricity to hardworking farmers and ranchers, but those same power lines can be deadly if not treated with respect. While farmers need to focus on the field and their machinery, your local electric cooperative urges you to also watch for electrical hazards.
President Theodore Roosevelt found adventure, purpose and healing in the rolling hills of the North Dakota Badlands. While Roosevelt always had an affinity for the wild world, his time in North Dakota inspired his groundbreaking conservation efforts and eventually earned him the title of America’s conservation president.
Though President Theodore Roosevelt called New York home, he was an intermittent North Dakotan. And he ate like one, too.
“The president lives very plainly. He prefers plain, wholesome food to the most elaborate menu,” the former White House chef Henry Benoit told The Lafayette Sunday Times in 1903.
One of his favorite dishes? A sirloin steak, potatoes and gravy. As a sportsman, he was also fond of all types of game, especially quail and venison. And, he had an affinity for his mother’s cooking. Relatable, right?
This summer promises to be one for the North Dakota history books.
As communities across the nation prepare for America’s 250th celebration, commemorating the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, North Dakota also eyes the July 4 grand opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora.
Bill Lowman says there are two kinds of cowboy poets.
There are those who love the life, but don’t have an opportunity to live it.
“We call (them) the wannabes. They’ll write the perfect cowboy poem every time to prove that they belong,” Lowman says.
The other ones live the cowboy life. Their routines are all too common.
From workforce development to community walkability, North Dakota’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) provides an all-encompassing blueprint to transform rural health across the state, N.D. Health and Human Services (NDHHS) Interim Commissioner Pat Traynor says.
The five-year statewide strategy hopes to strengthen rural health care and make North Dakota the healthiest state in the nation, funded with nearly $200 million in year one and supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, with NDHHS as the lead agency.
I tell people I have the best job in North Dakota.
I get to tell stories about North Dakotans, about rural people and rural places, about co-ops and co-op people.
I grew up drinking the co-op Kool-Aid. My family was a Farmers Union family, which meant we were a co-op family.
My mom, Pam Musland, was even the magazine’s local pages editor for KEM Electric Cooperative when I was a little girl in Ashley. My name was first mentioned in the magazine when I was 2½ years old.
