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MOVING DAY
Construction crews demolish the breezeway on the Southwest Healthcare Services Long-Term Care campus. (Courtesy photo)
Demolition completed at new hospital By BRYCE MARTIN
Pioneer Editor bmartin@countrymedia.net
Crews block traffic as they make their way down Highway 12 in Bowman on Tuesday, moving a storied local home to its new owners in South Dakota. (Photo by Bryce Martin/Pioneer)
Passersby take notice as crews relocate large home By BRYCE MARTIN
Pioneer Editor bmartin@countrymedia.net Bowman was abuzz Tuesday morning as passersby watched a giant, farm-style home being transported via semi across town. The home was being transported from the east side of Bowman to Harding County, S.D., for its new owners. The 4 bedroom, 1 bathroom home had a storied history of multiple owners over the years, originally built in the early 1900s. One of its first owners was George Rankin, who lived in the home after his parents bought it in 1965. Back then it was located in Marmarth. According to Rankin, before his father purchased the home, it was
owned by the city of Marmarth and used as a hospital. He claimed an official with the Milwaukee Railroad constructed the home in 1905 and it was used as a hospital through the 1920s and 30s. Rankin said the home was sold in 1990. LeAnne Rafferty added to the home’s history. Rafferty said the home was originally built for a railroad superintendent when the city of Marmarth was being built up in its heyday. She and her husband, Pat, purchased the home from Rankin’s family and eventually moved it to its most recent location in Bowman. Pat had a more ghostly memory of the home—claiming it was haunted. He told a story of hearing the sound of a pill bottle being shaken just before he and LeAnne were about to
head to sleep one night many years ago. They checked on their two children, who were fine, then searched a bit around the house but found no cause for the noise. With no further reason for alarm, they went to sleep, only to be awoken from a deep sleep about 45 minutes later by the same loud noise. They traipsed around the home yet again and double-checked the children. Their daughter, fast asleep, was fine, but it was their son who caused a bit of a panic—he had a 102-degree temperature. Pat said in that 45 minutes, his son developed a high fever. The noise, he presumed, was a friendly ghost watching out for their children. The Rafferty family then sold the home to Dr. Blair Matheson, a former Bowman doctor, in the 90s.
Demolition was completed this month at the site of the Southwest Healthcare Services Long-Term Care to make way for its expansion into a single campus hospital and care facility. The project, which officially received the green light earlier this year, is on schedule according to its construction manager, with the shell of the new facility’s exterior to be seen erected in the next few months. Matt Helleen, assistant project manager with Mortenson Construction, gave an update this week on the project as construction crews have been seen working at the site for several weeks. So far a few portions of the facility, located on Second Avenue Northwest, between Seventh and Ninth Streets Northwest, in Bowman, have been torn down. “The building looks significantly different,” Helleen said Monday. “We’re right where we want to be, right now.” Crews have already removed the breezeway near the center of the existing facility, as well as two wings that were part of the building. Helleen said those three pieces were a big hurdle. With those pieces out of the way, there’s area now open for excavation and concrete, which is where the project stands as of this week. About 30 percent of the old footings have been excavated, a process set to continue for
HOSPITAL | PAGE 2
Youth football goes undefeated for third year Coaches attribute program’s success to talent, discipline
By BRYCE MARTIN
Pioneer Editor bmartin@countrymedia.net Youth football in Bowman has scored since it began three years ago by the Bowman Parks and Recreation Dept. For three seasons, the 11-man team of fourth- through sixthgrade athletes has gone undefeated. The most recent season ended last weekend with a well-anticipated championship game, which saw the preteen Bulldogs
dominating their new rivals from Beach, 18 to 6. Chris Johnson, the man behind the team’s success, is a former high school and college football player. He said his passion for the game led him to volunteer to coach the youngsters. “I did it for the love of the game,” Johnson said. “And it’s turned out very well.” Johnson, co-owner of Subway in Bowman, has been at the helm of the team since the beginning. Other assistant coaches have joined him, but only Johnson and assistant Dan Peterson
have coached for all three years. Chanell Walby, director of the parks department, first started the league in Bowman. In its first year, Bowman joined the Dickinson Midget Football league but branched off on its own for the second year. Becoming its own team in a smaller league, part of the Badlands Youth Football League, led the Bulldogs to face teams from Baker, Beach, New England, Heart River and Killdeer. The league uses the USA Heads Up Football model of teaching the correct way to tackle to prevent injury and so far it has proven to be a safe league where the youth are learning proper skills, according to Walby. “We are happy to help prepare our youth for the (school’s)
programs and I’m pretty sure if you asked any of the players in the league if they had fun, they would say ‘Yes!’” she said. The first year of youth football attracted some big talent—literally. Peterson said that year’s team showed big in the line, with very athletic quarterbacks and a strong backfield. For the second year, fourth graders were invited to join. The team wasn’t as big in the line as the previous year, but Peterson said there were still some pretty good backs. This year, the game changed. “Hands down, we were oversized in every team we played,” Peterson said. “We were the smallest team.” But that didn’t seem to matter
SCIENCE
“It was definitely uncharted territory since nobody on the team, and nobody in the west region, had seen the course.” PAGE 12
NASA announced this week a major event in man’s exploration of space. PAGE 14
INDEX
Sports................ 12-13
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Obituaries................ 9
YOUTH | PAGE 3
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for the Bulldogs. In almost every game played, they outscored their opponent by nearly double. In some cases, it was almost a blow out for the Bulldog squad. “We have very technically sound players,” Peterson said. It didn’t hurt that this year’s sixth grade players played in the league for the last three years. “(It) just goes to show that the program works,” Peterson said. “We can still be undersized, smaller and still go undefeated.” The idea of the program is to develop the talent and skill of the players as they enter junior high and high school teams. And that’s proven to work as this year’s Bowman County Junior High
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Opinion................ 8
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Church Directory................ 9
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Classifieds/Legals................10
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Briefs................ 2
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Community............. 6-7