The Borderland Press - September 9, 2022

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News briefs Page 2 The Morning Run: Insomnia sucks Page 4 Musings from Munich: $7500 OBO Tall Tales and Serial Shorts: Cherry Bounce Part 2 Page 5 Run Langdon recap and donations Page 6 Eyes to the skies: Space Force launches annual open house Page 7 Jake’s Take on Sports Page 8 Views from the Borderland Page 14

News Agriculture Opinion Community Region Sports Church Classifieds Meeting Minutes Public Notices

Volume 1, Number 35

Ghosts of North Dakota photos enter public domain

In this Issue:

Index:

Friday, September 9, 2022

Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Pages 5-6 Page 7 Pages 8-9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13

SUBSCRIBE TO THE BORDERLAND PRESS Trade Area: Cavalier County, Walhalla, and Edmore - $49 per year North Dakota - $53 per year Out of State - $63 per year The Borderland Press P.O. Box 230 Langdon, ND 58249 701-256-5311

‘These photos were always meant for people who love the history of North Dakota.’ By Ghosts of North Dakota and Borderland Press Staff

Back in 2003, photographing North Dakota ghost towns and abandoned places started as a hobby for Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp. The duo make up Ghosts of North Dakota, which was based in Fargo for many years, until Hinnenkamp relocated to Langdon in 2019. In the Borderland, people may recognize Hinnenkamp’s voice as Rat on the Maverick 105.1 morning show, a sister company to The Borderland Press.

Photos by Ghosts of North Dakota. GhostsofNorthDakota.com

“What started out as a simple trip to check out abandoned places turned into a 20 year documentary into the history of the state I grew up in,” Hinnenkamp said. “After seeing how many places had already disappeared, we made it our goal to photograph as many places as we could before they disappeared into history.” “We learned about the Homestead Act that had settlers moving to the upper Midwest en masse, the railroads that built towns every eight miles along the tracks so the locomotives could refill their steam engines, and the population and development boom that sometimes followed,” Larson said.

From the Ghosts of North Dakota collection: North Grand Church, located in Adams County, N.D. 10 miles southwest of Hettinger.

They also learned that as fortunes rose with the coming of the railroad, they also fell when the railroad failed to arrive. Several of the first true ghost towns Ghosts of North Dakota ever visited were Sherbrooke, N.D., where a president once spent the night, and Lincoln Valley, N.D., once an entire town of homes, stores and streets. These were vivid examples of towns that initially boomed then vanished. Larson and Hinnenkamp took photos of everything: homes, churches, stores, bridges, lost highways, asylums, and abandoned military installations. If it was within North Dakota state lines, they likely visited it with few exceptions. From 2003 to 2015, the pair drove nearly 100,000 miles chasing photographs. They have documented more than 300 towns and places. “When we started doing this, there weren’t a lot of people doing it, but it seems in the last 20 years the beauty of the austere and abandoned has enjoyed a renaissance,” cont’d. on page 2

From the Ghosts of North Dakota collection: Josephine, N.D.

By Hilary Nowatzki any Walmart trip. For over two decades Charlotte Landsem has continued to show up to these markets with goodies that remind her of her heritage: lefse. Down south or out west you could say the word lefse and they would look at you as if you had a third eye. Up around here, with the northeast borderlands’ heavily concentrated population of Norwegian ancestry, every one knows what lefse is. Essentially a potato tortilla with 10 extra steps, but the payoff is worth it, as is the nostalgia for anyone of old Norwegian descent.

Whether it's a backyard garden or a vast spread of hectares - harvest season is here. Although it symbolizes the end of summer and beginning of cooler weather, the farmers markets throughout the northeast borderlands have thrived. For the past month, folks have flocked to these markets in Walhalla, Langdon, Pembina, Drayton, Grafton and Park River once a week to either sell or purchase locally homegrown produce and goodies. There's something special about these little markets, though. Surely if you’ve attended a farmers market in

a larger metropolitan area you understand. Of course, there might be more variety in the larger ones, but do you really know the people growing the stuff? Around here, you can purchase produce from a neighbor and know that your money is going straight towards taking care of that family you live right down the road from. You know that when you make a purchase - there is no middle man, there is no large corporation; that money stays local and supports the community we all call home. That’s way more special than

A typical day in the life of Charlotte Landsem goes like this: “I'm gonna peel 100 pounds of potatoes, and then I’ll boil them on the same day, then they go in my walk in fridge. The next day I’m going to rice them, then the next day I’ll fry them. That’ll get me close to 40 dozen. That’s a small day for me; I used to do 50 plus.” Yes, that is 100 pounds of potatoes, not ten. All of those potatoes are also grown right down the road in Hoople. Lefse, although it looks and appears to be a simple tortilla, is much more complex. The prep time is literally three days, and when Landsem mentions ricing the potatoes - she

is quite seriously mashing them into the shape of rice. The potatoes must also sit in cool temperatures for both of those nights in order to rise/soak appropriately before frying. Frying these delectables is not for the faint of heart, anyone with anger issues, or anyone with a lack of patience. The round thin bread is fried one at a time on a large circular griddle. The temperature has to be just right, the griddle must be flowered, your rolling pin MUST have dry cheesecloth covered in flour (even Landsem agreed one little wet spot on that rolling pin can ruin each piece until it is carefully dried and re-floured). Then comes the truly hard part: the lefse stick. Looking much like a paint stirrer with one end that is flat like a spatula - flipping the lefse is much like the moment of truth. Will the lefse tear? Is my stick completely dry? Did I just flip that onto the floor? These are all questions which come to mind. Landsem says she faces none of these challenges anymore. She’s a pro and could likely flip the lefse in her sleep. As most know in this region, much of its ancestry is of Norwegian descent, including Landsem. “I’m half Norwegian, but in my area where I live is all Norwegian area.” LANGDON FARMERS MARKET - Thursdays, 4 p.m., west of the Cavalier County Courthouse WALHALLA FARMERS MARKET - Saturdays, 9 a.m. - Noon, on Main Street across from the Mountaineer building

Photos from the Langdon Farmers Market, courtesy Langdon Area Chamber of Commerce.

She even visited Norway herself about 4 years ago and said that she had to go to Norway and try their lefse, and it was pretty good! It was one of the very first things she did when she arrived there, and she wasn’t disappointed. Lefse wasn’t always a delectable treat for special occasions. Landsem explains that lefse was originally a dish made out of necessity and didn’t possess the flavor most lefse we see today has. “Over there, it started up to just be flour, so when it made it to the United States, they started adding the potatoes. It used to just be wet flour.” The wet flour fried tortilla was made to store for long periods of winter, essentially if it was their winter bread. Over a hundred years ago, many Norwegiens migrated to the United States in search of the land of freedom and opportunity. Once here, they realized the abundance of potatoes and how easily they grew in the rich soil. Soon, cont’d. on page 14


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