Dr. Steve Hoffbeck

Who hasn’t experienced the momentary, magical thrill of seeing a meteor flash across the night sky in the corner of your eye? It vanishes almost instantly yet its vapor trail lingers longer in your imagination.

True simplicity in fishing consists of a bamboo cane pole, about 10 feet long, attached to a fishing line of about the same length, with a bobber, sinker, hook, and a wriggling worm. Sitting on a dock, riverbank, or the shore of a lake, pond, or stream, all you have to do is wait for your bobber to go down, and fun begins.

A notable North Dakotan of the past was a man named James Morris O’Neale, well-known as a Civil War veteran.

When Reverend I.O. Sloan set foot in Bismarck in 1873, it was a “wild and wooly” Western town. Bismarck had a few new wood-framed buildings, but it was teeming with “tents and gamblers,” and loud profanity prevailed. “Pandemonium seemed to reign” in saloons and gambling places that were open 24 hours a day.

We live in a time of abundant food, easily found at the grocery store, a big-box retailer, or a restaurant. Some people prefer natural food stores, farmers markets, or their very own gardens. A few stalwart purists even pursue wild foods, foraged from nature. Today, we’re taking a look at one of the best edible wild plants ever known: the cattail.

Deer hunters need to see clearly and aim accurately to bring home the big bucks. But they also need to follow basic gun safety rules to avoid harming themselves or other hunters.

Howard and Edna Stout were thankful for their new baby girl, born in 1949. They named her Linda. But soon, they became worried because baby Linda wasn't thriving. She was “very weak” due to being born with a hole in her heart—a ventricular septal defect between the lower chambers.

The Cannonball River got its name from the stones found in its waters and along its banks that are so round and smooth that they “greatly resemble cannon balls.”

Einar Mickelson was born in York, North Dakota, in 1915 and died in China in 1944 at the age of 29. In between, Mickelson lived a life of adventure.

You may not have been paying much attention to potatoes, but underground, summer after summer, in a field near you, North Dakota’s potato farmers have been contributing mightily to the regional economy.