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Friday, July 1, 2022 - For our monthly Journalists Roundtable, news director Dave Thompson visits with Cecile Wehrman editor for Journal Publishing in Crosby; and Mike Jacobs, columnist and former publisher of the Grand Forks Herald. ~~~ Matt Olien reviews “Lamb,” a folk horror film.

People all over North Dakota turned out for two former presidential rivals on separate speaking tours in 1920. Republican William Howard Taft had defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 presidential election, serving as president from 1909 to 1913. It’s unclear why the two came to North Dakota, but their speeches drew thousands of people.

It must be a good year for cottonwoods. I have heard several comments about all the cotton wafting in the wind this summer. Occasionally someone will ask why some cottonwood trees always produce cotton while others do not. Cottonwood is rather unusual in that they are dioecious, meaning the plant is either a male or female. It is the female trees that produce the cotton.

About 50 species of shorebird migrate through North America. Of those 50 species, about 36 pass on through, while a few stick around for the summer. They all take advantage of the lakes, wetlands, and the water pooled in farm fields.

North Dakota winters can get cold. North Dakotans take it as a point of pride that they can withstand temperatures that would make many people gasp. The winter of 1935-36 proved to be a rough one, and February was the worst of all. Trains were halted by snowdrifts. Towns were isolated. The Watertown basketball team could not get home after a game, taking refuge in a stranded Great Northern train.

Lamb is a 2021 folk horror film directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson, set in rural Iceland.

Tuesday, July 5, 2022 - Staci Lola Drouillard is a descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Anishinaabe, and she writes about that heritage. She joins us today to discuss her latest book published by the University of Minnesota Press, “Seven Aunts.” The stories of Staci Drouillard’s relatives reveal the heart and soul of the times they lived as they made a place in the world for the next generation. ~~~ Blue prints hidden behind a false wall. This sounds like a movie plot, it actually happened in Hillsboro at the Plummer House, which is now the Traill County Museum. It was a goldmine for the preservationists who restored the building to its original glory with Italian tile, glass from New Orleans, and indoor plumbing, a rarity in the 1800s. Special Contributor Brandi Malarkey goes on a tour with Curator LeAnn Beck.

Wednesday, July 6, 2022 - For 70 years, the town of Ellendale was home to a distinctive school established in 1889 as the State Industrial and Manual Training School. It attracted a talented faculty and graduated hundreds of fond alumni. It offered short courses in a variety of practical fields -- dressmaking, music teaching, carpentry, bookkeeping, farm mechanics and more. We visit with historian Connie Goddard, who has written a history of this interesting school. ~~~ Tom Isern has this week’s Plains Folk essay, “Sowers Prayer.” ~~~ “Artists on Main Street” is a project recently undertaken by the town of Bowman. It’s an effort at economic development with the help of a handful of artists. Special contributor Brandi Malarkey visits with a number of folks who pitched in to make it happen. ~~~ Chuck Lura shares a Natural North Dakota essay about the July supermoon.

Dwight Zimmerley, of Cogswell, North Dakota, set a non-stop flight world record on this date in 1929, flying solo 1,725 miles from Brownsville, Texas, to Winnipeg, Canada.

On this date in 1998, the Bismarck Tribune announced that Colonel Terry Scherling of Bismarck was now the highest ranking woman in the Air National Guard. She was promoted to Chief Support Officer for the Air National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C. She was only 43 years old, making her one of the youngest colonels in the country. Just the year before, Scherling had become the first female United States Property and Fiscal Officer. By the time of her retirement, she had risen to the rank of Major General.