From noon until 6:00 p.m. today, members of the Theodore Roosevelt Amateur Radio Club are hosting a special event station at the parking lot of Painted Canyon overlook near Medora.  According to Ken Muggli, vice president of the club, the event was organized to celebrate the 61st anniversary of fourth unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
From an [...]

At the far northeastern corner of North Dakota is a small town called Pembina.  With a population of around 642 people (by the 2000 census), you wouldn’t expect it to hold much interest.  But Pembina, besides being conventiently close to the Canadian border for travelers, is the oldest community in the state, according to Wikipedia.
 Visit [...]

I was impressed to read about the Torch Run trek in Minot Daily News this morning.  It appears that several law enforcement officers in the Minot, North Dakota area ran to promote and raise money for the Special Olympics.  I’m sure this happens other places, too, but it’s the first time I’ve heard of it.  [...]

Take a look at this beautiful photo from White Butte, North Dakota, posted by FreeCounterPoint.  I’ve driven by White Butte several times.  You’d never know it from this open picture, but just a little bit away is a wonderful forest of tall ponderosa pines.  It’s not well known even in the state, but it’s worth [...]

The Three Affiliated Tribes–the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara on the Fort Berthold reservation are hosting an energy conference today through Thursday.  According to this article, the conference aims to provide the Tribes with strategies and infrastructure ideas to help them control energy development on the reservation.  I believe the reservation is situated over the Bakken oil formation.  With that in [...]

The fourth annual Bike the Border Tour is coming up the third weekend in June.  Bicyclists will start and end the three-day tour in Kenmare, North Dakota.  Rest stops and overnight stays are provided along the route.  The cost is $75 per adult, $50 per child or $200 for a family of three or more.
With [...]

According to this article, Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Co. is planning to build a pipeline to carry natural gas from the Bakken formation to the Alliance Pipeline in Bottineau County.  The Alliance Pipeline will move the gas the rest of the way to Chicago to be sold.  The new pipeline will be about 100 miles [...]

According to the Bismarck Tribune, a Renewable Fuels Action Summit begins today.  Problems like climate change and its effects on energy production, switching from fossil fuels to renewable fuels, and economic impacts will be discussed.  The keynote speaker is Dr. Steve Chu, a Nobel Prize co-winner in the area of physics.
If, as Dr. Chu predicts, about [...]

KX News has started a week-long series on the oil industry in North Dakota.  The first post discusses how the oil industry affects North Dakota, including how the state gets revenue from oil production and where that money goes.  Right now, most of the new oil production is in the northwestern portion of the state [...]

Okay, so I can’t leave the ethanol topic alone.
I came across an interesting article today announcing a joint venture between DuPont and Genencor which has the possibility of making commercial quantities of cellosic ethanol available by 2012.
No government subsidies were mentioned in the article–a big plus, in my mind.  There’s also a possibility that the [...]