People

While farmers across the nation faced an economic collapse during the 1980s farm crisis, Brian Maddock studied.

As a legacy farmer, his family heritage runs deep. Maddock Ranch, located near the town of its namesake, traces back to Brian’s grandfather, who homesteaded in the area in 1889; the same year North Dakota gained statehood.

But it wasn’t until Brian attended a course on holistic resource management (HRM), that he put his faith into treating the ranch as one interconnected ecosystem. It worked.

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.

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?

I don’t remember ever watching my mother, grandmothers or great-grandmothers (how lucky am I to have memories of each!) use pressure cookers. I don’t have a lived traumatic pressure-cooking experience. Yet still, I am downright terrified of pressure cookers!

Why?

I hypothesize we suffer from the generational trauma of pressure cookers. Although I never directly experienced a traumatic pressure-cooker explosion, it’s possible the fear has been passed down from one generation of my family to the next.

Beyond supporting North Dakota’s economy and feeding the world, farming and ranching is a lifestyle – and livelihood. It is a legacy built on generations of hard work, sacrifice and success.

To protect this legacy and family farms and ranches around the state, North Dakota State University (NDSU) Extension, in partnership with North Dakota Farmers Union (NDFU), has developed succession planning workshops to help families transition operations to the next generation.

This year, the United States has used tariffs in unprecedented ways.

In an effort to incentivize producers and consumers to manufacture and buy products in the United States – among other goals related to political negotiations and curbing the drug trade – the United States has implemented sweeping tariffs around the globe. Some target entire countries instead of specific commodities, from as low as 10% to as high as 50%.
What’s the point of tariffs? How are North Dakotans affected?

Carol Crabbe has always been a busy lady.

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam conflict, which concluded with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began in the 1950s and greatly escalated in 1965. In total, more than 8.7 million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam era, 2.7 million of whom were deployed to Vietnam.

“When I left for Vietnam and flew out of Bismarck, that's the first time that I saw my dad cry,” Vietnam War veteran David “Dave” Logosz says. “My mom and dad were there, and my grandparents were there, and they were all in tears. I'm sure they didn't think I was going to come back alive.”

But he did.