North Dakota
A ‘showstopper’ wall rises in Medora, putting the Badlands’ true colors on display
MEDORA, N.D. — From its beginnings, the design concept for the future
Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
in Medora was an ambitious one, a “journey through a preserved landscape … a continuum between past and present,” according to the international architecture giant Snøhetta, which was commissioned for the job.
The Oslo-based firm’s concept included elements it said would integrate the ethos of the man the facility was built to honor.
“Our design … is informed by the president’s personal reflections on the landscape, his commitment to environmental stewardship, and the periods of quiet introspection and civic engagement that marked his life,” Snøhetta announced.
As the exterior of the library nears completion and a grand opening is slated for July 4, 2026, the architect’s visionary concept is coming to life, highlighted during a tour of the site by a recently-completed, towering, rammed-earth wall.
Anna Paige / The Forum
The wall, which Snøhetta touted as “one of the most visually striking aspects” of its design, is daunting in scale, reaching 30 feet in the air toward a sprawling ceiling of exposed timber panels and beams, and stretching 240 feet across what will be the building’s main hall. Bearing a remarkable resemblance to the sedimentary striations of North Dakota’s Badlands, its rough-hewn surface is pocked and porous, with uneven layers, and an earthy palate of sand, stone, mud and dust.
The rammed-earth technique is an archaic one, with evidence of its use found as far back as 5000 B.C. The rammed-earth portions of the Great Wall of China are celebrated by the United Nations’ World Heritage Convention as “exceptional testimony to the civilizations of ancient China.”
The last time the technique captured North Dakotans’ attention was the 1930s, when the Works Progress Administration and Col. Paul Southworth Bliss in southwest North Dakota championed it as a fireproof and efficient means of home construction, according to a forthcoming book by Jim Fuglie and Lillian Crook.
In more recent times, the rammed-earth technique has gained newfound popularity due to its environmentally-friendly, sustainable process and energy efficient qualities, but up until last year, when Winn Construction in Dickinson took up the challenge to build it, no such large-scale rammed-earth wall existed in the state.
Willie Winn, the concrete company’s owner, and Kenny Jessop, a Winn supervisor who oversaw the project, have spent their entire careers in the construction business, but the rammed-earth technique was new to them.
In order to better understand the task at hand, Winn and his team traveled to visit large, public rammed-earth walls in Cheyenne and Sheridan, Wyoming. A consultant was brought in to help determine the critical recipe for the mixture of earth that would be used for the project as part of the learning process.
But after that, the Winn team was on their own to erect what was to be the centerpiece of the library’s interior.
“It really started at our shop in Dickinson,” Jessop said. “We started with a 10-foot-tall mock-up wall.”
Winn said a lot of trial and error went into determining the particular formula for the wall’s earthen mixture.
Tasha Carvell
Almost immediately, the team realized the local gravel they were using had too much moisture, necessitating the construction of a temporary structure on site to dry it out.
The process for building the wall is a particular and labor-intensive one. Jessop described how forms were placed first, into which the gravel mixture would be poured. Rebar was run down the middle to reinforce the wall. Then, the gravel was mixed with 10% cement, with varying pigment amounts to achieve the colored layers, as well as a small amount of water to create the particular rammed-earth formula.
After the appropriate mixture was achieved, it was fed from an auger-style mixer to a truck-mounted conveyor, or telebelt, designed to place concrete and other materials in hard-to-reach or elevated locations. From there, the mixture was poured into the forms. For safety reasons, the team worked on four feet of wall at a time, Jessop said.
“Every layer that you see was placed and compacted individually. First it’s placed in roughly 12-inch loose layers of the consistency of a good road base,” Jessop said. After that the mixture was tightly compacted, or rammed, into the final eight-inch layer.
The construction of the library’s rammed-earth walls took a 15-man crew just over three months and about 12,000 man hours to complete, Jessop said. Two million pounds of material were used in the process.
When Winn talks about the role the local company he founded in 1981 played in building the centerpiece design element of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, he calls the opportunity “a privilege.”
Jenn Carroll, the library’s manager of sustainability, called the team from Winn Construction “really wise” in the way they approached the daunting job.
Anna Paige / The Forum
“From the owner perspective, it’s really important to note that the willingness of Willie and his team to take on this piece of the project,” Carroll said. “We’re incredibly grateful because this is such a big piece of what we’re doing, and they were willing to learn this new craft. When we first peeled the forms back, I think for all of us there was some celebration because it’s just stunning and it’s pretty special that we can have a local artisan do this and not have to hire out outside of our area.”
While the wall is not a structural element of the building, it serves an important role for sustainability, Carroll said.
“It’s going to help with our energy, retaining heat in the winter, keep the space cool in the summer, helping with humidity and moisture in the air,” Carroll said. “Because it is a kind of porous element, indoor air quality will be improved by it. So while it has some aesthetic values, there’s a lot more purpose behind the behind the wall itself.”
“People are going to walk in that lobby and it’s going to be the showstopper,” Carroll said.
North Dakota
Today in History: July 12, 1932 – A rumor turned into not only one tornado but a flock of them
Today in History revisits the Tuesday, July 12, 1932, edition of the Grand Forks Herald and highlights a story of rumors growing in North Dakota about tornadoes obliterating cities, hail pounding crops into the ground, towns in ruins. Turns out the rumors were flying around faster than any wind in the forecast.
This Rumor Turned Into Not Only One Tornado, But Flock of Them
Townspeople at North Dakota Points Go About Affairs Undisturbed While Stories of Their Destruction Mount.
It started with a little rumor. It reached the proportions of a major tragedy, with three towns in North Dakota swept away, property and crops destroyed, persons killed and injured, (estimates to suit yourself), and ere it goes further the truth must out.
It’s a story about a person or several persons who started rumors that there were storms, yea verily, tornadoes, and cyclones of great proportions in the vicinities of Cando, Devils Lake, Towner and other points throughout the Northwest.
Early Monday came queries about the tornado that left Devils Lake’s business district a complete wreck. Through the afternoon, far into the night they continued, the questions varying in respect to the exact whereabouts of the storm.
There were those who heard that Towner had been razed; another who had talked with a traveling salesman, just in from Rugby by motor, who reported that Cando was in ruins; still someone else who was informed that crops throughout the entire district had been driven into the ground by hail.
By the hundreds these rumors came to the Herald for verification, more information. This is the dope:
The Devils Lake Journal reports only slight showers throughout the day, no wind, no hail, no damage.
The Towner railway agent says all is quiet along that front, no storms, not even any indications.
The Cando telephone operator gives the information that, contrary to rumors, all buildings are in their places, there are no dead or injured, the townspeople hadn’t heard about the storm.
Stories and rumors to the contrary, notwithstanding, the Northwest is not strewn over the countryside and blown to bits by wind. A few showers is the best it can do.
Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.
North Dakota
The Crookston Masonic Lodge and Order of the Eastern Star present a donation check to Honor Flight of North Dakota and Minnesota
The Crookston Masonic Lodge #141 and the Order of the Eastern Star #137 presented a $57,938 donation check to Honor Flight of North Dakota and Minnesota during a ceremony at the Masonic Lodge on Thursday. The donation will help cover the costs for the next round of Honor Flights for 2026, with two flights scheduled […]
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The Bison are in the game. For real, this time.
When EA Sports brought back its College Football title in 2024 after a decade-plus hiatus, FCS teams were not included. That’s still the case as the game moves into the third year of its revival, but, of course, North Dakota State has moved up to the FBS level, as members of the Mountain West.
And one of the perks of that move is inclusion in the popular sports simulation. Participating players get $1,500 plus a free copy of this year’s game, College Football 27.
Not bad, huh?
I can only imagine how cool it is for a kid like Abraham Myers, a tight end from Sioux Falls Washington High School, to see himself as a playable character on a millions-selling PlayStation game, but it’s cool for fans, too.
If you’re a Bison fan, it’s all right there. The Fargodome (sorta, EA didn’t bother to include the name, calling it ‘North Dakota State Stadium’), Tim Polasek, the Bison mascot — OK, that’s really about all the detail they went into, and Polasek’s likeness leaves a bit to be desired. Then again, they still haven’t made much effort to make Kalen DeBeoer look like Kalen DeBoer, so whatever, I guess.
In the past you could still play as NDSU, or SDSU, or USD, or Augustana, or Roosevelt High School, or St. Mother Theresa’s Middle School for the Deaf, or any other team, real or imagined, because of the game’s “Create a team” engine, and that’s still there on this year’s game. There are already a few Jackrabbit teams up on the servers that you can download if you’re an SDSU fan and want to play as the Jacks.
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But Bison fans (and Sac State fans, and Missouri State fans, etc., etc.) don’t have to do that. Their team is in the game, with their actual stadium and their actual coach and their actual players, and when I fired up the game on Thursday just an hour after it officially launched, I’ll admit it, the first thing I did was start a game in Fargo, pitting New Mexico against the Bison in the Fargodome for a Mountain West clash that sent former SDSU assistant Jason Eck up against his old Dakota Marker nemesis.
The game started up and there they were: Nathan Hayes under center for the Bison, with DJ Scott carrying the ball, Jackson Williams running free over the middle and Myers teaming with Reis Kessel at tight end to create problems in the red zone.
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I went right down the field and scored on the opening drive, with Hayes finding Williams on a drag route for the touchdown.
Despite the best efforts of New Mexico’s star linebacker and former Brookings Bobcat Jaxton Eck (Jason’s son), I had no trouble dispatching the Lobos 31-10.
Later I played around with some other fun matchups.
I brought Nebraska into the Dome, and while we all know the Huskers stink now, for someone like me who’s old enough to remember their Glory Days, it was fun to see the iconic Nebraska uniforms on the Fargo turf, and wonder if someday that could actually happen now that NDSU is in the FBS.
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Later I played a game at the Big House in Ann Arbor, sending the Bison up against the Wolverines. Michigan got the ball first and after a holding penalty pinned them deep in their own territory, Keenan Wilson’s strip-sack of Bryce Underwood gave the Bison first and goal, and with the Miaze and Blue crowd of over 100,000 roaring, I quickly turned it into a short touchdown pass from Hayes to Myers.
Ultimately I couldn’t keep that up against the Wolverines, falling 31-21.
I played around with some other teams, mostly the ones with familiar faces. Jimmy Rogers and Iowa State, Matt Entz at Fresno State, Missouri State, Kennesaw State, Sac State, Delaware and other former FCS powers.
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I also played a few series of the Tennessee vs. Alabama rivalry game to get an early glimpse of what kind of teams South Dakota’s two favorite SEC sons (DeBoer and Josh Heupel) might have in store for 2026.
Much has been made of trying to predict how successful the Bison will be in year one at the FBS level. Some have already anointed them a favorite to grab a G6 playoff spot. Others think they’ll at least win the Mountain West, while few seem to think they’ll finish much lower than third or fourth.
What does EA think?
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The Bison are given an overall team rating of 75 (99 is the highest possible), which is higher than many if not most G6 teams. James Madison, for one, gets a 77.
The other Mountain West teams earned the following ratings:
Air Force – 74
Hawaii – 76
Nevada – 73
New Mexico – 76
Northern Illinois – 70
San Jose State – 72
UNLV – 78
UTEP – 72
Wyoming – 73
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As for the NDSU players, here are their top rated personnel:
Griffin Empey (LG): 87
DJ Scott (RB): 83
Keenan Wilson (DT): 80
Darius Glance (SS): 79
Myles Mitchell (RB): 78
Josh Magin (RT): 78
Donovan Woolen (LB): 78
Keith Williams (LB): 78
Logan Larson (DT): 77
Jackson Williams (WR): 76
Matthew Stenbroten (DE): 76
Zach Vanderpool (DT): 76
Alijah Wayne (DT): 76
Jaylin Crumby (FS): 75
Kelton McCaslin (DE): 75
Reis Kessel (TE): 75
Nathan Hayes (QB): 74
Nate Tastad (RG): 74
Taylen Eady (FS): 73
Ryan Babatz (LT): 73
Alex Jenkins (LT): 73
DJ Volts (CB): 72
Mekhi Collins (WR): 71
Jack Liwienski (OG): 71
EJ Davis (CB): 71
Will Steil (FS): 70
Drew Klein (K): 70
Makes you wonder how players like Chase Mason and Charles Pierre would measure up. Maybe someday the Jacks, Coyotes and Fighting Hawks will be in the game and we’ll find out.
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Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.
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