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The Turtle Lake area is the heart of North Dakota’s best hunting and fishing. Geese, ducks, pheasants, grouse, deer, walleye, bass, trout, perch, rare bird watching and thousands of wild flowers within two miles. Abundance of public land in area. Turtle Lake North Dakota is a Friendly and wholesome place to raise a family. Turtle Lake North Dakota is a top notch school system that includes excellence in academics and sports. Enjoy the truly good things in life, move to Turtle Lake, ND

 

 

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Click me Houses and Apartments for rent!

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House For Sale  SOLD

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House for sale.   SOLD                                   House For Sale.  $42,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turtle Lake is an ideal place to live, work, raise a family and own a business. Have it all, start a business in Turtle Lake North Dakota, or move your business to Turtle Lake ND, or buy an existing business in Turtle Lake ND, or find employment at one of the many Turtle Lake North Dakota businesses. Click on the below links for more info on Turtle Lake ND Businesses. Also, on the Turtle Lake North Dakota “Opportunity Page” you will find a listing of Turtle Lake North Dakota Businesses that are for sale! Please contact Don Cullum if you know of any other businesses that should be listed on this Turtle Lake North Dakota web site!

 

If imitation of web page content and ideas is the greatest form of flattery then we should be flattered by recent web pages. 

I will include a link to the latest form of flattery here when that web page is up and running. 

 

Opportunity knocks

Make the Move to Turtle Lake !

 

Turtle Lake Homes For Sale

305putnam

Reiswig House

 

 

 

 

Turtle Lake Pictures For You

http://www.youtube.com/user/turtlelakend

Turtle Lake North Dakota Area Sunrises and Sunsets

Turtle Lake North Dakota Area Barns

Turtle Lake North Dakota area Lakes, ducks, geese, fishing

Turtle Lake North Dakota Area Sloughs and Canal

Turtle Lake North Dakota Area Countryside

Turtle Lake North Dakota Businesses, School and Churches

Things You Might See In Turtle Lake North Dakota

Turtle Lake area Flowers, Wild Flowers, Sunflowers, Plants

 

The above you tube links gives you access to hundreds of digital photos of the Turtle Lake ND area.  These digital images include what you might see if you were driving or walking in and around Turtle Lake ND. These images include area attractions, main street, unique sights, unique houses and lodges, area wild life, area lakes, area sloughs, school, area barns, wild flowers, birds, sunsets, small town living, etc, etc.

 

 

Click here for furnished houses, apartments and rooms available for daily rent

Click on the below links to access info on Turtle Lake and Mercer area businesses.

 

 

AJ&H Masonary Juel Anderson

 

Turtle Lake ND 448-2235

 

 

Ambulance
911 or (701)448-2444

 

Anderson Construction
(701) 448-2658

 

 

 

12 Ring Archery
(701) 448-2559

 

 

AUCTION SERVICES
Jack Walcker

 

Bait and Tackle
(701)701-448-2817

 

 

Bank Of Turtle Lake

448-2323

 

Barry’s Jack and Jill
(701)448-2280

 

 

Baseball

 

Basketball

 

Betty Boop’s Bar
(701)448-2320

 

 

Bev’s Cafe
(701) 448-2472

 

 

BLACK BEARDS
(701)-448-9171

 

Bowling Alley
(701)448 2300

 

Bryle’s Firearms & Storage
(701)448-9255

 

Cenex
(701)448-2355

 

 

Camper & Motor Home Parking 701-448-2547

 

 

Car Wash
(701)448-2269 or 1-800-276-1719

 

Cheryl and Eric’s Dog
Grooming701-448-2547

 

 

Chester’s Tavern
Mercer ND 447-2411

 

 

Church Listings

 

Clinic
(701)448-9225

 

 

Cullum Rental Properties 701-448-9125 scroll down on this page for pictures of Cullum Rental Properties

 

 

 

Community Center

 

Community Memorial Hospital
(701)448-2331

 

Cooter’s repair
(701)448-2437

 

 

 

Darlene’s Tax Service
(701)448-2249

 

 

Dentist—Dr. Wilton Kuehn
(701)448-9111

 

Dakota West Credit Union

 (701)448-9220

 

 

Data Drive Thru Inc.  448-2317

http://www.thetornado.com/site/home.shtml

 

 

 

 

Duane Schaefer Excavating 448-2389

 

 

Edinger Construction

448-2238

 

 

Ed’s Service, Mercer ND 701-442-2275

 

Equity Elevator
(701)448-2461 or 1-800-210-5891

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Nelson Photography and Video701-448-2000

http://www.weddingphotographerfargo.com/

 

 

Farmers Mutual
(701)448-2456

 

 

Farmers Union Insurance
(701)448-9135 or 1-800-575-5441

 

 

 

Farmers Union Oil Company
(701)448-2355

 

Fishing

 

 

Fire Department
911 or (701)448-2555

 

 

Football

 

 

 

Furnished houses and rooms for daily rent

 

 

 

Fylling & Scraping
(701)448-9202

 

Goetz Funeral Home

 

 

GoMac Construction
701-448-2219

 

 

 

Hanson Insurance Agency
(701)448-2456

 

 

Harrys Auto Service
(701)448-2460

 

Hometown Hair
(701)448-2539

 

 

 

Hospital: Community Memorial
(701)448-2331

 

 

Click me

Houses and apartments for rent
(701)448-9125

 

 

 

 

Jan’s Construction and Cabinets 447-2688

 

 

 

Jack Walcker
AUCTION SERVICES

 

 

 

Job And Business Opportunities In the Turtle Lake-Mercer Area

 

 

John E Williams Preserve

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juel Anderson AJ&H Masonary
Turtle Lake ND
448-2235

 

Jack and Jill
(701)448-2280

 

 

 

Johnson machine shop and gun barrel manufacturing  448-9188

 

 

 

Justin Miller’s Excavating 448-2240

 

Lang’s Auto Body
(701)448-2269 or 1-800-276-1719

 

 

 

 

Larrie Cherry Lawn & Driveway
Services(701)448-2895

 

 

 

Leah Anderson Consulting 448-2220

 

 

 

Levey Construction
(701)448-2360 or 448-2678

 

 

 

Levey’s Plumbing and Heating(701)442-5424

 

Library
(701)448-9170

 

 

 

Limousine Service
Ray Herr (701)448-2252

 

 

 

Lone Pine foundation

 

 

Lone Pine furnished houses for rent on a daily basis 701-448-2040

 

 

 

 

Machine Shop
Ray Herr (701)448-2252

 

 

 

Marv’s Bar
(701)448-9996

 

 

Mec Services
(701)448-2313

 

 

 

Mercer Machine
.(701)442-2271

 

 

McLean Electric
(701)463-2291

 

McLean County Journal
(701)448-2649

 

 

Mclean McHenry Mutual
Insurance Co.(701)448-2255

 

 

McLean-Sheridan RuralWater(701)448-2686 msrw@westriv.com

 

 

 

 

Midcontinent Cable TV
1-800-456-0564

 

 

 

Miller’s Excavating 448-2240

 

 

 

 

 

Mobile Home Lots for Rent
701-448-2547

 

 

 

 

http://msvikkis.samsbiz.com/

Ms Vikkis  (701) 448-2813

 

 

Murray’s Repair
(701)448-2254

 

 

 

Nelson Photography and Video701-448-2000

http://www.weddingphotographerfargo.com/

 

 

Norman Johnson machine shop and gun barrel manufacturing  448-9188

 

 

North Dakota Ag Mediation Services 701-448-9260

 

Northland Community Health Center
(701)448-9225

 

 

 

Northern Lights Hunting Lodge
701-448-2205

 

Noyes Apiaries
701-448-9146

 

 

Otter Tail Power Co.
(701)463-2285 or 1-800-572-6621

 

 

 

Outfitters
Hunting and Fishing

 

 

 

Pinky Murray’s Construction
(701)448-2254

 

 

Photographer 701-448-2000

http://www.weddingphotographerfargo.com/

 

 

 

 

Piano Sales and services

John Larson 448-2645

 

 

Plumbing

Duane Huelsman Lake Country Plumbing 448-9157

 

 

Police
911 or(701)462-8103

 

 

Post Office
(701)448-2654

 

 

 

 

Rainbow Services
(701)448-9290

 

 

Ray Herr Construction
(701)448-2252

 

 

Real Estate for sale near Turtle Lake. Prime hunting land. $1,100 per acre. 701-222-8145 glnord@bis.midco.net

 

 

Restaurant (Bev’s Cafe)
(701) 448-2472

 

 

 

 

Restaurant Bowling Alley

For sale!
(701)448 2300

 

Restaurant (701)448-2813

http://msvikkis.samsbiz.com/

 

REXALL DRUG
(701)448-2542 or 1-800-645-1239

 

 

Rooms For Rent

 

 

Rud Oil Co.
(701)448-2250

 

 

R.T.F.I
Fishin’ for Fun

 

 

 

Rusty The Turtle

 

 

 

Rust’s Hardware Hank
(701)701-448-2817

 

 

 

 

Schaefer Excavating 448-2389

 

 

 

 

Schlichenmeyer Antiques 448-9152

 

 

 

 

Schafer’s Paint and Repair
(701)448-2221

 

 

 

Sharpiessharpening
701-448-2547

 

 

 

 

 

Sixty-Niners Senior Citizens Club
(701)448-2400

 

 

Small engine repair
(701)448-2437

 

 

Softball

 

South McLean Soil Conservation
District (701)448-2377

 

 

 

 

Storage and Bryle’s Bobcat Services
(701)448-9255

 

 

 

 

Story Book Antiques
Main Street
in Turtle Lake (701)-837-5757 (701) 626-7324

 

 

Stradinger Apiaries
Mercer ND (701) 442-2273

 

 

Sunset Acres Mobile Home Park
All lots are sold! (701)448-9125

 

 

 

Tastee Freeze for sale 448-2817

 

 

Taxes (Darlene’s Tax Service)
(701)448-2249

 

 

 

Thomas Honey Company
(701)448-2223

 

 

Todays Styles
701-448-2481

 

 

 

Tree Services (Bryle’s)
(701)448-9255

 

 

 

 

 

Turtle Lake Ag Repair
(701)-448-2475

 

 

Turtle Lake Cenex
(701)448-2355

 

 

Turtle Lake Family Clinic
(701)448-9225

 

 

 

 

Turtle Lake City Government
(701)448-2596

 

Turtle Lake Community Memorial
Hospital(701)448-2331

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turtle Lake Insurance Agency
(701) 448-2323

 

 

Turtle Lake Laundromat and Wannamakers Coffee Shop

 

 

 

Turtle Lake-Mercer Opportunities

 

Turtle Lake-Mercer Public School
(701)448-2365

 

 

Turtle Lake Municipal Airport

 

 

Turtle Lake Rexall Drug
(701)448-2542 or 1-800-645-1239

 

 

 

Turtle Lake Sanitation
(701)448-2596

 

TURTLE LAKE NORTH DAKOTA
(701)448-2596

 

Turtle Lake Water Dept (City)
(701)448-2596

 

 

Turtle Lake Weigh Station
(701)448-2500

 

 

 

 

Turtle Lake Wildlife Club
(701)448-9181

 

 

Turtle Motors 701-448-2547

 

 

Veterinary Services (Mobile)
Dr. Corey Grabinger (701)448-2231

 

 

 

 

 

Wagner Trucking
(701)448-2263

 

 

 

 

 

Wardner Waterfowl

701-448-2241

 

 

Western Lighting and Technology Inc 1-800-662-7291

 

448-9193

701-448-9192

 

 

West River Telephone  701-748-2211

http://www.westriv.com/

 

 

 

Turtle Lake North Dakota and Cullum Rental Properties

Why Turtle Lake?.....
       
ˇ Affordable housing

ˇ Nice people and great location!

ˇ Friendly merchants!

ˇ  Low property taxes!!

ˇ  Quality business web pages to fit your budget!!

ˇ  Wide range of businesses and services!!

ˇ Great Place to Hunt and Fish



ˇ  Contact me for up-to-date information on available rental housing in Turtle Lake!

Call 701-448-9125
Write Don Cullum, PO Box 292,
Turtle Lake North Dakota, 58575
email me at
doncullum@yahoo.com

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Contact me for up-to-date information on available rental housing in Turtle Lake! I will tell you of any available houses or apartments that I am aware of.



Click on the below pictures for a closer look at Cullum Rental Properties.

 

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The Future Of Area Education Facilities

Some things about the projected future are more obvious than others.   For example, take the school enrollment for area schools and the determining factors for the future of this enrollment.  Because of the expanded and expanding area coal mining, Underwood’s immediate area family farm and ranches are almost non existent.   The western edge of the TLM school district will for the most part be the eastern border of the newly expanded Underwood area coal mining.  Not unlike many of the other area McLean County towns, the local coal mine, local power plant and local ethanol plant provide some jobs for those that inhabit the Underwood City Limits.  What ever Underwood’s future does hold, it will likely be without the already lost traditional area family farms and ranches that had at one time been a significant factor in Underwood school enrollment and customers for what is left of Underwood’s merchants.

Looking East of Turtle Lake we see another struggling school district.  The McClusky Goodrich School District does not have the big area industry that McClean County benefits from.  The area agriculture combined with seasonal area hunting and fishing is a great boost for the McClusky and Goodrich economy and does help keep some of their stores and shops open but does not bring enough new families to the area to keep their business and school doors open indefinitely.

Situated between Underwood and McClusky is the Turtle Lake Mercer School District.  The Turtle Lake Mercer School District already serves a tremendously large thriving farming and ranching area for several communities including Turtle Lake, Mercer, rural Coleharbor, Butte, rural Ruso, rural Benidict, more than halfway to Velva, about half way to Garrison and also serves within a few miles of Washburn, about halfway to McClusky and already serves within a few short miles of Underwood.

The TLM School District is sustained by many positive factors including strong area agriculture, strong area industry, thriving Main Street and local service industry including the hospital, clinic, dentist office, grocery store, restaurants, insurance sales, service stations, world wide product sales, product manufacturing, etc.  The continued positive influence of area agriculture, area jobs, and the extraordinary area hunting and fishing that the Turtle Lake area offers are among the combined reasons why the city of Turtle Lake (including Turtle Lake’s Main Street) continues to thrive and why, with good management and planning for the future, Turtle Lake and the Turtle Lake Mercer School District should be, could be, in existence until the end of the human existence on this earth.  Most of the other bordering school districts can not realistically say the same.

Turtle Lake’s central location allows residents to drive to work to the nearby Falkirk Mine, Coal Creek Station and Blue Flint Ethanol Plant.  Many drive much further to work, just so that they can live within the city limits of Turtle Lake or in the nearby Turtle Lake area country side.  These commutes include driving as far away as the agricultural process plants in Velva, various jobs in Bismarck, Minot and Basin Electric’s coal gasification plant in Beulah.   Many who support the TLM school district are employed by area agriculture as well as businesses and support services located within the city limits of Turtle Lake.  Because of the diversity that living in or near Turtle Lake offers and because of the central location of TLM, it is advisable that TLM prepare for the future when TLM will accommodate increased enrollment.

It is no further distance to Underwood, Riverdale, Coleharbor, Falkirk  or McClusky than it already is to the extreme northern edges of the existing TLM school district.  If consolidation is ever deemed necessary for nearby communities, the strategic location of an “expanded future central school district education facility” within the City of Turtle Lake is the only logical and fair thing to do for the large north, south, east and west area that the TLM school district already serves.    TLM already shares a bond with both the Underwood and McClusky/Denhoff/Goodrich school students because these (three different school district’s) student athletes are already teammates in several high school sports.

 

Data to support the fact TLM is centrally located includes the following.  Underwood driving miles to the TLM education facility is 15 miles, Coleharbor is an 18 mile cross country drive to TLM, McClusky is a 23 mile drive to TLM,  Washburn is a 25 mile drive to TLM, Falkirk is a 25 mile drive to TLM, Denhoff is a 32 mile drive to TLM, Butte of which is 32 miles to the north of TLM is already in the TLM school district, Riverdale is within 33 cross country miles of TLM, Goodrich is within 39 miles of TLM.     Other parts of the equation are that Drake and Anamoose may someday opt to combine with Velva.  Velva is only 29 miles from Drake.    McClusky is 33 miles from Drake and 43 miles to Anamoose and 48 miles to Harvey.

 

As of 2007, the statistics indicate that TLM currently outperforms most area schools in at least some core area standardized testing subjects including leading the county in K through 12 combined test scoring in mathematics.  TLM graduates include doctors, lawyers, engineers, agriculture, pharmacists, teachers, professors, physician’s assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, LPNs, dental hygienists, musicians, electricians, mechanics, physical therapists, accountants, air traffic controllers, career military, business managers, entrepreneurs, power and process plant electricians, plant mechanics, plant operators, plant supervisors, building and trades, carpenters, computer programmers, plumbers, elected officials including State Agricultural Commissioner, business owners, game and fish related employment, etc.   Read all the print in this and all other Turtle Lake websites to learn of the many other reasons why Turtle Lake is an ideal place to live and raise a family.

 

Autumn in Turtle Lake North Dakota  By Don Cullum

Breath the fresh cool autumn air, feel the sunshine warming your skin, warming your very being.  listen as a slight breeze rustles the colorful autumn leaves.   A Swanson’s hawk stand in vigil watch from top of a fence post.  In the distance you hear the honking of geese.  The geese are close enough and flying low enough that you can hear their wings rhythmically cut the air as they pass over.  A goose honks to its mate, making a noise that sounds closer than it should be, louder than one might expect if you had not heard it before.  You watch the geese get smaller as they fly toward the horizon but then slow and circle the nearby wheat stubble, no doubt looking for something to eat and a safe place to land.  A few minutes later you hear the rolling, purring noise that only a sand hill crane can make as they communicate while they too fly overhead.

It is autumn in Turtle Lake North Dakota.  Some of the locals take it all for granted, while others know they are in paradise.  Hunters and tourists come from all over the United States to experience the sights and sounds of a Turtle Lake fall day.  A visit into Bev’s Café, the bowling alley and Ms Viki’s during the thick of the water fowl hunting season is sometimes like walking into a living Cabella’s magazine that features hunters from states as far away as Florida modeling their warm, water proof, camouflage pattern hunting gear.  The restaurants are at times almost as busy as Turtle Day’s but this celebration lasts more than a month.  They come here to enjoy the things that we as area residents see and experience every single fall day.

The wheat is in the bin but the remaining short golden straw stands stiff, with a look of velvet softness when viewed from the distance.  Large sunflower heads are all bowed in one direction, dark seeds in the middle, surrounded by wilting relatively short somewhat triangular flower pedals that are in various stages of darkening color.  No longer bright yellow but now shades of darker yellows and browns.   The stalks strain against the weight of the sunflower heads that are now as large as dinner plates, bowing slightly from the weight while the stalk leaves hang withered and dry, shades of darker green and brown.

The cattails are thick, soft color browns and tans that rustle with every breeze, in tight but irregular spacing, … framing sloughs and pot holes.  The dark brown cattail seeds holding tight to their cylindrical shape, providing one of the many contrasting but natural colors of a North Dakota Autumn that is  shared with those who take the time to notice.  The blue sky reflects from the glassy smooth surface of the early morning slough.  The muskrats stir the reflection with their wake as they slowly glide across the surface of the water, spending much of their time building their huts in the shallow water.  Colorful mallard ducks, wood ducks, Northern Pintails, Reheads, Canvasbacks, Scaup, Shoveler, Gadwall,  Teal,  and many other species of ducks are content to continue to call these sloughs and pot holes home but will soon join the migration south.    Hundreds if not thousands pretty but unpopular yellow headed and red winged black birds fly past, as they too have started their migration.

As the sun sets the rooster pheasants can be heard sounding out one last cackle before they bed down in the cattails and heavy brush for the night.  Deer can be seen in the distance as they venture out in the early evening, looking for green grass, fallen fruit and spilled grain.  The full moon will soon give light to the night while the great horned owl asks Who, who…who, who?  Sit long enough and you will hear the coyotes yipping and then howling for a few minutes before they start to roam.  How far does one have to travel to experience these sights and sounds?  During any given fall, this can all be heard and seen from the edges of the city limits of Turtle Lake .

The fall fishermen are out in force too.  They stay closer to home as the weather cools but there are still many choices for dropping a line.  There are however, 18 fishing lakes within 25 miles of town.  There are three lakes within a mile and four fishing opportunities within a mile if you include the canal.  And yes, many of the locals do include the canal in their list of great places to fish.  Driving the canal road during any given summer evening, one might find a fisherman at every cement canal bridge for at least a mile in both directions from Turtle Lake .

The local kids have named some of these bridges.  The bridges with names are of course their favorite summer swimming holes.  There is Hanson’s bridge, with a silhouette view of the wildlife club and framed by overhear power and phone lines that have dozens of lures tangled and hanging from them. Hanson’s bridge is most popular for the younger kids and worrisome for parents because it is within easy traveling distance for those on foot and on bike.

Then for the most daring, and who have a drivers license, there is the locally famous Evans’s bridge.  Evans’s bridge is a terrifyingly high bridge located several miles south of Turtle Lake that one would no doubt believe that he or she would die if you fell off of.  But then you hear a blood curdling scream and see a body falling the distance to the water below.  Youth from as far away as Bismarck count one Mississippi , two Mississippi , three Mississippi , kursplash.  Water splashes high and the surface boils where the body went through, but then moments later a teenager claims his right to momentary fame as he or she surfaces, yelling out in celebration as does the crowd on the bridge that waits their turn to test their courage as well.  From an adult’s perspective, jumping from Evans’s bridge is unadvisable. It is no less dangerous than cliff diving.  This is a jump from a height that looks to be no less than the equivalence of jumping off of a six or eight story building.  Actual measurements by the curious youth indicate it to be about 47 feet during the most high water level conditions and several feet further in lower water conditions.  .

Not exactly sure what kids from big cities do to occupy themselves but a typical youth in and around the Turtle Lake area works for a local bee keeper either robbing honey or extracting honey, works for a local business or work on their parents farm or ranch.  In their free time they participate in sports, church youth group, swimming, paintball gun wars, some play a musical instrument, some sing, many including the girls go hunting and fishing.   The required hunter’s safety course for youth hunters is likely to include as many girls as boys.  Driving through the nearby country one is sure to notice the remaining magnificently large barns that dot the landscape.  These grand structures are a reminder of the proud heritage of those who founded this land and those who have followed.

The city of Turtle Lake is for the most part comprised of a conservative lot and is somewhat sheltered from big city problems including serious crime.  There is however still some crime that has to be reported.   Not long ago, the police report included in the local newspaper, describes a call to sheriffs office where a lake cabin flower bed had been vandalized.  The suspect was a goat, ….said to be a three legged goat. Someone who is not from around here might think that this writing is a reference to some place fictional, some happy made up place like Andy Griffith’s Mayberry or Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegone but no,  …… this is real.  This is Turtle Lake , ND .

 

It Is The People!

It’s the people.  More than anything it is the people that make Turtle Lake and rural North Dakota what it is today.  The history of how this land was populated by the settlers is colorful and inspiring.  This history includes the lineage of most that inhabit this area today.  There is absolutely no question that agriculture and related industry was the driving force that inspired the settlers and their children to continue to live in rural North Dakota.  The legacy of the North Dakota pioneers includes the work ethic and relative wholesomeness that North Dakotans are still famous for today.

Agriculture is still very much a part of the area economy and very much a part of the local way of life here in Turtle Lake.  The way we dress, the respect we treat each other with, the practical vehicles that we drive, the churches that our forefathers built and we sustain, the way we raise our children, all have much to say about who we still are today.   When we look out into the area that surrounds Turtle Lake we see much of the natural beauty that the earliest pioneers likely also enjoyed.

Perhaps not everyone that currently lives in the Turtle lake area is employed through agriculture but agriculture and the influences of agriculture are likely much of what all of the modern day inhabitants love about the Turtle Lake and Mercer area.  I lived in many different states and even a tropical island before I chose to make my home in Turtle Lake.  I am very grateful for my life here including the opportunity to have raised my children in Turtle Lake.  As human beings, when we think of what we can offer to the future, we find that it is our time honored values, our services that promote these values, and those that we directly influence including our children and their children, that will have the most positive humanitarian impact on the future.

When I attended high school at TLM during the seventies, I did not have much of an agriculture back ground but I was elected as the Reporter for the Turtle Lake- Mercer FFA and awarded the Star Agribusinessman award for my work as a student mechanic at Haas Chevrolet and International Harvester implement dealership.  These honors and awards had as much or more to do with my ability to write as it did with anything else that I had to offer at that time.

During the 1980’s the drought and low grain prices took a tremendous toll on North Dakota agriculture.  We witnessed a terrible destruction to the area economy.  Many area family farms ceased to exist.  There were more than 40 empty houses in Turtle Lake and many Main Street businesses were folding as well.   Many of us chose to not go silently into the night.  Those that could, did hang on to their farms while others did what they could to preserve this little town that serves the Turtle Lake area.  Our efforts included forming a very progressive group of volunteers whose efforts included a national advertising campaign entitled The Explore Turtle Lake Project.  In a somewhat controversial move, we took pen in hand and let those that had left the area and the rest of the world know what this area had to offer.  Our promotional ads were published in the USA Today, LA Times, Chicago Tribune and Boston Herald news papers as well as several hunting and fishing magazines.   Many area communities followed our lead.

This web page is a continuation of that original Explore Turtle Lake Project effort to preserve the communities that serve the Turtle Lake Mercer area.  This web pages’ associated guest book has entries that date back to 1999, while the main content and theme of this page dates back several years prior to that earliest guest book entry.  The Explore Turtle Lake Project has had a hand in writing and originally funding most of the content of four hugely popular Explore Turtle Lake booklets, the original and current main three Turtle Lake web pages and most of the other web pages that still represent the various positive aspects of the Turtle Lake and Mercer area. When a person or organization takes on a project of this magnitude there is hope that the project will become self sustaining and that those who are influenced by the project will be a large part of that continuation of goal and theme.  As a result of the success of us advertising what we have to offer here in Turtle Lake, several businesses, businessmen, business women and community leaders have moved into town.  Turtle Lake’s Main Street is again healthy and boasts a significant number of young business owners.  These business and community leaders, are among those who have actively joined this continued effort to let the rest of the world know what we have to offer. An example of a similar project or new direction of effort of which is, in essence, a part of this described “self sustainability”, is the current direction of the newly formed Turtle Lake Chamber of Progress and their efforts to build yet another web page to advertise what we have to offer here in Turtle Lake.  All of the efforts by each and every Turtle Lake organization, community leaders, business owners, business managers, etc are again applauded here on this website.  We continue to survive, as did the area communities that followed our lead.   We are all proud to continue to do our own part.

Occasionally we hear of or read an inaccurate description of North Dakota and or North Dakota agriculture.  An example of this inaccuracy is the subjective viewpoint described in the January 2008 National Geographic article by a seemingly depressed author, “Charles Bowden”, of Tucson Arizona, who writes of his dreary thoughts about North Dakota that include a dead cat, a dead deer, a dead badger and Charles Bowden’s reoccurring thoughts of suicide.  Charles Bowden also wrote in the January 2008 National Geographic article that the reason ND communities have dwindled is because there is not enough rain to sustain crops in ND.  Easily accessible government statistics reveal that ND is often the top producer of many crops that feed our nation and the world including in 2007 when North Dakota was the nations top producer of spring wheat, durum, barley, Oats, canola oil, canola non-oil, all types of sunflowers,  flaxseed, pinto beans, navy and all dry edible beans, dry edible peas, lentils and honey.    The fact is that “there is adequate rain in most years” to grow a very wide diversity of crops in ND.  Grain prices and subsequent related size of the viable farming and ranching operations are the reason why there are fewer farmers and ranchers.   Knowing how we ended up here, in our current situation, is a powerful tool in knowing what future direction we here in ND should pursue.   Where in ND, the US and in the world, would you rather raise your children and why?    Looking in all directions, in this small town, this state, and this country, reveals evidence that we, of who live in Turtle Lake and Mercer ND, do have much to be thankful for and have made the right choice to continue living here.  Congratulations to Charles Bowden for being the first to make it on my list of “extremely subjectively negative reporting regarding ND”.  Warning to writers, would be writers and other media: know your facts when writing or reporting about ND or end up on this and other web pages as an example of your specific brand of mistake.   The internet does have a way of leveling the playing field doesn’t it?  Web pages are often ranked/listed on search engines by relevance, including how often the web page is visited and how many times the searched subject matter is mentioned on a given web page.  For example: a search for the 2008 National Geographic article by Charles Bowden will likely eventually produce this web site as the most appropriate match for a search that includes the words “2008 National Geographic article by Charles Bowden”. 

 

Charles Bowden showed up on a college campus in Bismarck ND in June of 2008 when he unsuccessfully attempted to defend his subjective views of ND.   During Charles Bowden’s  bumbling June 2008 speech he compared the desert climate of Arizona to that of ND while referring to what he described as a sustained drought in ND.  Charles Bowden also described how both Arizona and ND have depleted their natural resources and therefore have arrived at their self inflicted woeful state of being.  Of course Charles Bowden is wrong on both a sustained drought and depleted ND resources.  Charles Bowden’s comments about the continued drought came during a week when there was record rainfall in much of ND and during a year when ND will likely again be the top US producer of several agriculture commodities. Those who have studied or are even mildly aware of what is happening in ND do know that ND has a long sustained history of being the top US producer of many agriculture commodities, that ND has one of the largest untapped oil reserves in the US and ND has thousands of years of untapped coal reserves.  Congratulations to Charles Bowden for being the first to make my list of speakers who without regard to easily attainable facts does somehow try to pass himself off as an expert on ND resources during a speech of which includes a “subjectively negative view of ND”. 

 

As a former TLM FFA Reporter, I am proud to report that TLM, the City of Turtle Lake, TLM area agriculture and the TLM FFA are still in existence today.  The TLM FFA is representative of our past, our present and the future existence of the Turtle Lake Mercer area.  The TLM FFA has a long and distinguished history, complete with state and national honors and awards.   I would very much like to link a TLM FFA history web page here or publish TLM FFA accomplishments on a web page if someone would take on the project of accumulating and typesetting this info to a pc format.  E-mail me at doncullum@yahoo.com

 

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