SPORTS
EDITORIAL Who Cares?- Page 3
SPORTS
Local golfers plan for busy July at Sweetwater Golf Course -Page 7
Bowman Junior High Rodeo Team closes out 2019-2020 Season -Page 7
The deadline for our July 10th issue will be Thursday July 2nd at 4 p.m. due to the holiday.
Serving the Region Since 1907
Vol. 115 No. 26
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JUNE 26, 2020
Dinosaurs bring PBS show to Bowman region Museum makes changes, focuses on fossils
Pioneer Trails Regional Museum’s administrator, Jean Nudell, stands in front of one of the museum’s biggest draws - a triceratops. PHOTO/Brad Mosher
By Brad Mosher
bmosher@countrymedia.net
Fossils are big in western North Dakota. Also South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. So big that even a national television network has brought even more attention with a three-episode series which will be concluding July 1 on PBS. Prehistoric Road Trip started June 17, broadcasting an opening episode titled “Welcome to
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Fossil Country” with a look at the area encompassing the western edges of the Dakotas and Nebraska, as well as the eastern area of Montana and Wyoming. As the first episode described it, the series started by looking at billions of years of history while also looking at science and culture. In the three-part series, Emily Graslie covers three different periods and the remnants or fossils they left behind. The series is a production of WTTW in Chicago. Graslie was the writer and executive producer, as well as the host. She also is a South Dakota native and works at the Field Museum in Chicago. The second episode (which broadcast June 24) is titled “We Dig Dinosaurs,” while the third episode is called “Tiny Teeth, Fearsome Beasts” (broadcasting July 1). Over the three episodes, Graslie visits dozens of archaeological digs. She walks through eons of history from the PreCambrian and Paleozoic, through the Mesozoic and Cenozoic to present day. “We’ll travel through billions of years of Earth’s geological timeline,” she explained as the first episode began, “Each stop telling us more about how we got to where we are now.” She also promised to reveal some of the amazing wonders beneath people’s feet that are still hidden from view. The first episode takes the viewers through South Dakota, Wyoming and into Montana. One of the places the crew visited behind the scenes was the Pioneer Trails Regional Mu-
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The Dakota Western Bank branch at Second Street and South Main Street was evacuated June 18 when strong winds caused a branch to fall and create an electric problem for the bank. Four units from the Bowman Fire Department responded, along with ambulance and police units. The incident happened in the early afternoon. A repair crew from Montana Dakota Utilities also responded to make the electrical repairs. PHOTO/Brad Mosher
Bank evacuated after winds cause electric outage
Staff Report
The Dakota Western Bank in Bowman was evacuated and closed Thursday, afternoon for several hours after strong winds caused an electrical short. The Bowman Fire Department responded with four units, according to Chief Chad Welch, while ambulances and police and sheriff units also arrived on the scene. The page went out originally as a structure fire, prompting the ambulance response, Welch explained. “Anytime there is a structure fire, the ambulance comes automatically.” The winds broke a tree branch near the bank shortly before 2 p.m. It fell on the power lines close to the bank, the chief said. “Then it shorted out the transformer. “They (the bank) were out of power for a while. We did have trucks stand by while the MDU crew out of Dickinson had to come down and replace the transformer, There was sparking, so we sat there to be sure the public wasn’t in danger. “It (the falling branch) blew the line fuse and ended up taking out the transformer also. It shorted between the two lines,” the chief explained.
Riders pull out of Bowman Saturday morning at the start of a local fundraising event for the Nick Johnson Memorial Fund. PHOTOS/Brad Mosher
Motorcyclists hit the road for local fundraiser
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seum in Bowman, a regional repository for history from within 100 miles of the community. According to museum officials, it also studies, collects and curates vertebrates, invertebrates and plants from 73 million years old marine deposits up to the youngest deposits of the area, which are 28 million years old. Some of the animals that have been found are mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, dinosaurs and early mammals that include camels, rhinoceroses, horses, and giant pigs. The demise of the dinosaurs and the changes in local paleoenvironments are just a couple of areas in which the Paleontology Department has been researching over the past decade. This research is conducted in the rugged landscapes along the Little Missouri Badlands drainage in southwestern North Dakota. The museum reopened in mid-May, after closing in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The museum staff is still asking visitors to practice social distancing and keep groups to ten or less. The museum is continuing to go through some additions to their displays and will be continuing to add to them throughout the summer, according to the staff.’ In addition to a large fossil display, including a triceratops, the museum has a regional focus on the history of the area. The museum is on a summer schedule, open Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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Staff Report
It was perfect weather Saturday for a motorcycle ride on the two-lane highways of both North and South Dakota. It just got a little wet towards the end as a series of storms moved through the region. The Nick Johnson Memorial Run started in Bowman and went through Scranton before heading south. The group cruised through the South Dakota towns of Reva, Buffalo and Ludlow before heading back into North Dakota and Rhame. The participants paid $20, of which 75 percent goes to the Rhame Fire Department Memorial Fund, according to the organizers. The other 25 percent went to the group’s Poker Run, according to Ethan Seifert. At each stop, the group drew a card. Seifert had hoped for good weather for the Nick Johnson Memorial Run, and he got that for most of the ride but when the motorcyclists returned to Rhame and Bowman they had to deal with rain and wet roads. The group left Windy’s Bar and Pizza in Bowman Saturday morning on schedule.
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