http://www.westriv.com/

Interesting TLM Facts

The below contains some interesting information about the Turtle Lake Mercer area including some fun and historical information about Turtle Lake Mercer High School TLMHS athletics and TLM sports related athlete accomplishments in baseball, basketball, football, cheer leading, dance team, rodeo, track, volleyball and wrestling. Please let me know if you find errors or otherwise have corrections or useful information that can be included in the below contained information. The team members listed are not necessarily listed according to who started but rather by who was listed first in the information that I found regarding these teams. Often time the information was obtained from news paper clippings, memories of participants as well as from TLM yearbook team photos and other descriptions from within TLM yearbook. I plan to try and obtain info to include All Conference, All Region, All State, School Record, State Record and other distinguished honors but this info is not so easy to come by so please help me out. I need to borrow TLHS annuals from 1970 and prior as well as Mercer annuals from 1972 and prior. I also need to borrow sports season information ( from all years) that include TL, Mercer and TLM summary including news paper articles as well as memory book information that includes team records, titles and honors. Please contact me at doncullum@yahoo.com if you have corrections or additions to this accumulation of Turtle Lake Mercer area information. Generally sports enthusiast / alumni are the record keepers of such. I am probably the only keeper of this accumulation of this information and therefore I encourage all who have an interest in maintaining this information to periodically copy and save this web site information in your own files so as to protect the accounting of this information in the event I am no longer able to do so. Perhaps an interested organization or committee can take over this project when I can no longer do so. Meanwhile, the donations that are sent to support this project will be utilized to continue the web posting of this information and periodically copy this info on a CD. Eventually, with enough donations for justification, I will put this information in a “TLM Facts” Bank of Turtle Lake Safety Deposit Box along with the donations or donation account information. As an additional measure to preserve this accumulation of TLM sports related info, for each donation of $25 or more, I will send that donor a most recent Compact Disk that contains a copy of this TLM Facts web page info. For each donation of $100 or more, I will send that donor a most recent paper copy of this TLM Facts web page info and a Compact Disk that contains a copy of this TL Facts web page info. Any donations that amount to more than needed to maintain this TLHS and TLMHS sports related information will be donated to TLMHS for All Conference/All District, All Region/All State Plaque updates and additional trophy display cases. Donations can be sent to TLM Facts, care of Don Cullum, PO Box 292, Turtle Lake, ND.

The amount of land area in Turtle Lake is 1.302 sq. kilometers.
The amount of surface water is 0.037 sq kilometers.

The distance from Turtle Lake to Washington DC is 1394 statute miles.
The distance to the North Dakota state capital is 49 statute miles. (Statute miles are "as the crow flies")

Turtle Lake is positioned 47.52 degrees north of the equator and 100.89 degrees west of the prime meridian.

Largest breeding population of the endangered Piping Plover bird is located about three miles North West of Turtle Lake at Lake Williams.

Sargent Ordway of the Lewis and Clark expedition made his way up Turtle Creek and discovered the Turtle Lake area including Lake Ordway of which is located a few miles West of the Town of Turtle Lake.

There was at least one Calvary and Indian battle within a few miles of Turtle Lake.

If you know of any details of the above mentioned items or have other interesting facts about Turtle Lake or the Turtle Lake area, please e-mail or send that info to me and please include sources that can verified.doncullum@yahoo.com or Don Cullum, be PO Box 292, 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”.

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

TL-M Sports

http://www.ndhsaa.com/

Please note that the below portion of this web site is a celebration of the positive and fun that is happening in youth sports in Turtle Lake, Mercer and at TLMHS .

Let us pray to our Heavenly Father that participating in and supporting sports from both the fan and athlete perspective will have a positive impact on our area youth and communities. Let us pray that our youth will not suffer serious injury and that having participated in sports will be a wonderful memory for all the athletes, coaches, fans and parents. Amen. Thank you for your support and prayers.

Sportsmanship And Other Lessens Taught And Learned Through Athletic Competition

True life stories for inspiration for sports and for daily life. God is with us during this journey too.

Click here for an inspiring look at a fun and wonderful celebration of sports and life made perfect by the crowd who witnessed and shared in the moments of the event

The Basketball Hero, “one year later”

Click here to watch “Can Worlds Strongest Dad” …..An extraordinary love between a father and a son. This short video has been viewed almost 4 million times.

Click here to view the “Can Worlds Strongest Dad Part 2” , the rest of the story video. Amazing.

Click here to view the Urban Legend Reference page regarding the true life story of “Team Hoyt”

Sports competition can offer many positive lessons to the youth who participate. These lessons should include........

(1) Hard work and dedication have ample rewards and rewarding this hard work and dedication is at the heart of what is fair in sports and in life.

(2) Team work achieves the teams highest potential.

(3) Respecting officials and following rules is the right thing to do.

(4) Setting and achieving goals has many rewards.

(5) Punctuality is expected.

(6) Hard work and dedication have many fans.

(7) Positive attitude is a virtue.

(8) You will be remembered for your effort or lack of effort.

(9) Winners with an unlikable attitude are losers.

(10) Give 100% and you will have no reason for regrets.

(11) Being a real leader means setting a good example.

(12) The ability to accomplish the extreme of an individual or team potential is mostly attitude including aspects of hard work and dedication.

(13) Visualizing the accomplishment beforehand is part of achieving the accomplishment.

(14) Hard work and accomplishment of the extreme positive limits of the individual and team potential yield many good memories.

(15) Friends and teammates have tremendous value during and beyond the years that they participate in sports together.

(16) Loyalty to the coach and teammates is key to success of the team or organization that you work for.

(17) Believing in the coach and following the coach’s directions is key to success.

(18) Teams that do not follow their coach’s direction are destined to fail in their attempts to achieve team goals.

(19) Superior team statistics are more likely to win competitions than individual statistics.

(20) Individual's awesome efforts in practice and in competition, along with encouraging teammates to push themselves to the extremes of their individual effort, are the key to a team's success.

(21) Knowledge and skills can be learned and perfected to the extreme limits of the team and individual’s ability.

(22) The amount of practice and preparation by coaches and athletes is proportional to the achievement of their full potential.

May the peace of our Lord be with you now and forever, Amen.

Envision, Prepare, Believe, Accomplish

achieving goals in life

Before you begin an athletic career or begin to shape or mold someone else’s athletic career, it is very important to know and fully understand that there should be an extreme intensity regarding the conveyed importance of the academic process that will be needed to accomplish and prepare for a productive and purposeful life. The instinct to compete and the yearning to compete should be catalyst for a thought process that can be utilized to accomplish the highest potential of individual and group efforts including the success of and spiritual prosperity for family and nation, as well as in the noble stand by individuals and organizations for all that is decent and proper. Respect, confidence, positive outlook, resolve, physical intensity for the task at hand, mental focus, envisioning, endurance, self worth, physical fitness, discipline and the ability to work together as a team are all characteristics taught and promoted by athletics. These characteristics are included in the core thought processes of the successful academic student, successful individual careers and successful organizations.

Envision. The envisioning process should include the athletes, parents and coaches. In the best case scenario, envisioning will