# National Geographic



## itchy (Aug 15, 2006)

When we were out in ND during our annual hunt, we had a couple of guys stop at the house we rent, who said they were photographers from National Geographic and they were doing a story about how "North Dakota is dying." They were taking pictures of houses that were abandoned. The town we stay in has about 20 some houses and only 8 families still living in it, school is boarded up, house are vacant, some have been torn down, foundations filled in. What are you residents' opinions of this?


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## dosch (May 20, 2003)

Must of got sick off all the NR hunters and moved


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

Yeah they went to live with the NRs :lol: :lol:


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## always_outdoors (Dec 17, 2002)

There are too many things acting on why our small towns are dying.

Back in the day, school went from September to June and sometimes only 4 day weeks so kids were home working the farm with Mom and Dad. they also took a 2 week break in April to help mom and dad get the crops in.

Of course SuperWalmarts, Sam's Clubs, Menards, and places like that took care of the grocery store in places like Heimdahl.

Then you have the Internet where I can order anything from instead of the clothing store that used to be in Washburn, ND.

Farms are getting bigger and they aren't producing more land which means the smaller farms are being bought out. When you do that to 20 farms in one area over the course of 5 years, that could mean 20 or so students that aren't in the small town school system anymore.

I could go on and on with more examples. People want everything at their fingertips now. We are also a much more mobile society (when I was growing up, we were lucky to make it to Bismarck once a month and now my parents drive down there twice a week just to go out for supper).

It can be a sad site to see. I like those small towns. Napoleon is probably my favorite small town.


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## Madison (Mar 1, 2002)

Sounds like another NR story to convince us ND'ers that NR's are keeping this state alive... :eyeroll:

Alot of these towns have been in exsistence since the early 1900's and guess what there still there... :biggrin:


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## dosch (May 20, 2003)

Fillmore will always be my favorite. While my dad and the boys would go for a beer after the hunt we would hang at the old gym and shoot hoops.


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## itchy (Aug 15, 2006)

Madison, this ACTUALLY happened. And I was trying to get an idea from people that live there. I know what we spend out there doesn't mean sh*t. I wasn't making any statement about that. I love how every friggin' topic on this site turns into an us against them discussion. :eyeroll:


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

Back in time you needed a certain number of people living on the land to be a state... well we don't qualify by those standards anymore because most of our residents live in towns like Fargo, Bismarck, etc. The worst part is we don't have enough rural people to keep our health clinics open.


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## Madison (Mar 1, 2002)

itchy said:


> . I love how every friggin' topic on this site turns into an us against them discussion. :eyeroll:


Thats cool man.. :beer:

I agree, this is one of the downfalls on this site..


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

This whole state needs to be updated from the lowliest politician to the highest judge. Our state needs to be rezoned according to population, our county's were formed to govern X amount of land and people. Well the people are gone but we are still paying for county seats and county officials that have very little to do.

Many of our counties should be joined together to from maybe half the counties we have now. The only reason this isn't done is because the politicians would look less important and the distributors of fed money would get less to hand out. From a new "Good Ol Boy"!!!


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## NDTerminator (Aug 20, 2003)

itchy said:


> When we were out in ND during our annual hunt, we had a couple of guys stop at the house we rent, who said they were photographers from National Geographic and they were doing a story about how "North Dakota is dying." They were taking pictures of houses that were abandoned. The town we stay in has about 20 some houses and only 8 families still living in it, school is boarded up, house are vacant, some have been torn down, foundations filled in. What are you residents' opinions of this?


More room for me. I'm not going anywhere...


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

> Our state needs to be rezoned according to population, our county's were formed to govern X amount of land and people.


 John Wesely Powell did the original survey of the plains. He suggested about 8 counties for a state like ND. Immigrants listened to the rr land sellers instead of scientists. Towns were built the distance you could drive a horse. Everybody wanted a local college, rr depot, county seat, grain elevator etc. Based the economy on grain instead of livestock. They have been leaving ever since. And the Fedral farm program has accelerated the process.


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

Yeah... and with all that has changed you would think it would have been a natural course to eliminate more and more of the county seats. The small towns that were needed back in the horse and buggy days are gone for good I'm pretty sure. I suppose the government is the only entity that can afford to hang on the way they do. Even the railroad had to close it's not needed lines.


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## redlabel (Mar 7, 2002)

The population decline in the rural counties is not a recent phenomenon. If you look at the census data for ND by county the poplulation decline appears to have started in the 1920's and has continued ever since.

A poplular theory is that the plains were oversettled in the first place.

I often wonder how much the policy of saving the family farm had to do with the changes in the last 50 years. It seems our government officials were so concerned with saving the family farm, that by the time they realized they could no longer define a family farm, technology had happened to the rest of the world.


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## HonkerExpress (Sep 23, 2005)

Thats alright, I live in a city, but I go home every weekend, "small rural North Dakota" and spend my hard earned City Bucks. I wouldn't have it any other way. I enjoy getting out of Grand Forks and head home to "My Home Town". I would say it hasn't changed any sine I graduated there, new kids, same trouble, same town. and I still love it. So if North Dakota is Dying, OH well, I still love it. :beer:


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## Waterspaniel (Oct 10, 2005)

Most folks in America cant make it on one income anymore. Kids are leaving and going to the cities for better wages and more excitement. Land that took ten farmers to farm, now takes 2 guys and some huge equipment. The towns are losing people thats for sure, but I think the industry is still doing well for those that adapt. I dont think there needs to be the number of people in the rural areas as there used to. Its a huge topic. I will be looking for that issue.


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## Boonedog (Sep 10, 2006)

I wish that all of you would quit fighting about non-resident hunters. That is an asset to our state. Why don't we welcome the economy. And you wonder why the state is dying. Some of you guys don't welcome the change in our economy. Hunting is great in ND and people want to pay to hunt here. We own land and haven't had a problem with NR hunters going on our land without permission. "Itchy" was just asking an opinion, yet the first comment after is complaining about NR hunters. Give me a break!


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## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

So if we don't agree or it's not the answer you believe, then we shouldn't answer???? Makes no sense. Our opinion was asked and answer was given!!! :eyeroll:


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## itchy (Aug 15, 2006)

dj, I agree, answers were given.

We were surprised by what happened. I think every state has some towns that are gone/on there way out, but someone thought ND was in a more dire situation, I guess. The town we go to eat sure seems to be doing fine, due I'm certain to our infusion of cash to the local economy :lol:

In all seriousness, live2hunt has some very valid points, "save big money," falling smiley face prices, and the internet are changing how our economy works, I work in a small town, live in Rochester (MN) and run into a lot of people that live in that small town at the Walmart 8 miles away doing their grocery shopping, even though the small town has a nice grocery store.


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## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

Since people are bringing up Wal Mart.....here is a thing I found out.

You know how they advertise great prices. Well they do have a lot of sales or lower prices. But that is only on about 25% of what they sell. Other than that they are the same price or a little bit higher ( a cent or two) than other stores.

Also another thing walmart does is they will keep undercutting companies. Example if three companies sell Hair dryers. They will go to those three companies and ask what is thier best price. They chose the lowest one. Then the next year they go back to the three companies and show how many they sold. They ask the other two if that company can lower its price. The companies see the sales and drop the price. Then this happens again until two of the companies are gone! It is capitalism at its best. If you look at walmart it is what is good and what is bad about capitalism! Sorry I will get off my soap box. But if you can don't buy from walmarts!

Chuck


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## itchy (Aug 15, 2006)

You got it Chuck, their called "loss leaders." The big M uses the same technique, advertise some low prices and then gouge you on the other things you pick up while you are there.


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

But do you shop there? Yes.

I have a buddy who is always preaching about the evils of large corporations and wal-mart, etc etc. But he still shops there. :roll:


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## Chuck Smith (Feb 22, 2005)

Bareback........The only time I shop there is around X-mas because people want giftcards to walmart. Other than buying gift cards I don't shop there. 
I know it is hypocritical...but I try my darndest not to shop there. Again it is to give a gift card to my brother because he shops there. That is the truth.

Because if you travel down south and see what walmarts have done to some small towns.......it is amazing. On my travels I have seen empty walmart buildings in smaller communities. The walmart came in. Made other stores close down and then moved location to build a "SUPER WALMART" now town has hardly any businesses and people have moved to work at the new walmart. Again Walmart is everything good and bad about capitalism. Again I will get off my soap box.


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## taddy1340 (Dec 10, 2004)

Chuck Smith said:



> Since people are bringing up Wal Mart.....here is a thing I found out.
> 
> You know how they advertise great prices. Well they do have a lot of sales or lower prices. But that is only on about 25% of what they sell. Other than that they are the same price or a little bit higher ( a cent or two) than other stores.


This is a true analysis. Wal-Mart advertises low prices. However, these low prices are for the items being sold in the aisles. Almost everything else on the shelves is comparable, if not more expensive to other stores. The Wal-Mart Corporate merchandising agent admitted this in an interview with 20/20.


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## northdakotakid (May 12, 2004)

All I have to say is that I spent my first hunting season away from North Dakota in 27 years (my age) by looking out an office either in Manhatten or in Phoenix and I can say this... it only reenforces my idea of moving back to North Dakota. I do not fully anticipate a pay cut because in todays technological revolustion I will probably be working satelite for the same company. Of course by not working in NY that hurts my ability to enhance my career because there will be less visibility which means possibily less advancement, but making NY City money in North dakota still sounds good to me.

I think this is the reality rather than a the dream any more. I work with some collegues that have moved to Mexico and work out of their houses there, how would ND be any different. We can all thank DSL and the new airpost in Bismarck for giving us this capacity.

I look foward to working out of our farmhouse with the people that I worked with in the World Financial Center in Manhatten as they take their 1 hr - 1 way commute to and from the Island.

I also plan on opening a new business in North Dakota also that will hopefully bring some new jobs back that would otherwise have been offshored. North Dakota, to me, is on the verge of a new boom and it will change how everyone in that state views resident and non-residents.


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