N.D. House Speaker Richard Kloubec pins a corsage on Rep. Brynhild Haugland on March 18, 1987, which was declared “Brynhild Haugland Day” by then Gov. George Sinner. Photo courtesy of The Bismarck Tribune

THE GREAT EQUALIZER
A Republican from Minot, Haugland was first elected to represent her district in 1938, merely 18 years after women were given the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She was re-elected 26 consecutive times, even when her party dropped her from the ballot in 1962. She won that primary as an independent, and then the general election, and would run again the next cycle as a Republican.

Photographer Wayne Gudmundson, left, and authors Steven Bolduc and K. Amy Phillips collaborated to produce the book, “The Prairie Post Office: Enlarging the Common Life in Rural North Dakota.”

A hollowed-out hole in an oak tree on the Missouri River. Lonely fur trading outposts. Military forts. An old sheepherder’s wagon. Humble sod homes. Homestead shanties. Isolated ranches. And a rock ledge on a butte. What do these things have in common? They all served as early post offices through present-day North Dakota.

(Photos by NDAREC/Liza Kessel)

Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative member Annette Broyles drives 80 miles roundtrip each workday, to get from her home in rural New Salem to her classroom at United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) in south Bismarck. She doesn’t mind the drive, because she loves her job. In fact, she celebrated her 16-year work anniversary in December.

“Every job I have had has kind of led me to this,” Broyles says.

Perry Hanson carries on his father’s legacy as editor of North Dakota’s basketball bible, “The Hoopster.” Photo by NDAREC/Liza Kessel

Minnesota has hockey. North Dakota has basketball. And no one knew North Dakota basketball better than Don Hanson.

For 35 years, Hanson produced the basketball bible for North Dakota: “The Hoopster.” It is a comprehensive guide to North Dakota high school and college basketball, complete with team previews, player information, statistics, predictions and even a master list of North Dakota school nicknames dating back to a time before school consolidation.

Kidder County High School Principal Michael Wachter leads the anti-vaping charge in his school by focusing on mentorship and recovery, not punishment. Photos by NDAREC/Liza Kessel

“Your kid has done it or seen it done, and I can almost guarantee it,” says Kidder County High School Principal Michael Wachter.

The “it” Wachter describes? Vaping.

Using an e-cigarette is commonly called vaping. E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid into a vapor that can be inhaled. The vapor may contain nicotine, flavoring, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other chemicals.

“It’s happening,” he says. “Your son or daughter has seen a device being used. And that right there is peer pressure in itself.”

Members of the Watford City/McKenzie County Complete Count Committee (CCC) wear matching T-shirts on Wednesdays to create awareness about the 2020 Census, which is part of a community-wide effort to ensure an accurate population count.

“If there is an issue or something to solve in Watford City, we look at things from a community standpoint,” says Pat Bertagnolli, vice president of human resources with MBI Energy Services.

This sense of community that defines Watford City and greater McKenzie County has brought a group of area leaders together to put the local face on a federal constitutional mandate. The mandate is a decennial count of the population, and the 2020 Census is here.
 

Molly Yeh Photo courtesy Food Network

GIRL MEETS FARM

While in college, Yeh started a food blog, called “My Name is Yeh,” putting her passion for food and baking, like her mother, to work. The success of Yeh’s blog opened other doors. She wrote a cookbook, “Molly on the Range,” which led to the 2018 launch of her own television show on Food Network, “Girl Meets Farm.”

“Girl Meets Farm” takes viewers inside Yeh’s farmhouse kitchen, where she makes food that connects her Jewish and Chinese heritage to life on a Midwestern farm.