North Dakota
Dedicated locals work to keep the ‘Frost Fire’ burning at northeastern North Dakota ski resort
WALHALLA, N.D. — Patty Gorder had to do something.
For years, she had heard her husband, Dustin, bemoan the fate of the Frost Fire ski resort, located 7 miles west of Walhalla in the northeastern corner of the state.
Although both of the Gorders are avid snowboarders, Dustin was especially passionate about Frost Fire, a 173-acre, spruce-studded property located on the west slope of the picturesque Pembina Gorge.
The Grafton, North Dakota, native had grown up in northeast North Dakota and dreamed of owning a ski resort as a kid. He had worked on the snow-making crews at resorts like Moonlight Basin in Montana, so had become a local Old Man Winter for his expertise at creating snow. Now he serves on the board of the Pembina Gorge Foundation, which acquired Frost Fire from private ownership in 2017.
The little resort is beautiful and carries charming names like “Upper Uff Dah Trail” and “Larry and Margie’s Day Lodge.” But over the past decade, it has been hit by one costly crisis after another. A new chair lift needed to be purchased and installed. The resort still had its original snow-making equipment from when it opened in the 1970s, so it repeatedly broke down. And then, right before the 2020 ski system, Frost Fire’s general manager resigned.
“Dustin came home and he was just devastated,” Patty recalled. “He was like, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do,’ and I’ve never seen him like this, so I was like, ‘OK, I can help you guys.’ ”
Patty was already plenty busy. She owns the Namaste Massage and Yoga Spa in Grafton, over an hour away. Even so, she spent a couple years volunteering her time as Frost Fire’s general manager, while also running the spa. (Today, her general manager role is a paid position.)
A general manager at a small, local ski park isn’t an office job. It means filling in at the bar and grill as the cook if the chef is on vacation. It means meeting with important investors one day and cleaning toilets the next.
And the problems didn’t magically melt away when Patty took over. Flooding, staffing shortfalls and a snow-related collapse of Frost Fire’s amphitheater roof have all created black-diamond-level difficulties for Frost Fire’s management.
Yet she remains optimistic. She and the foundation continually add new revenue sources, like yoga on the deck, special events and scenic chairlift rides to view the area’s fall foliage. They were able to hire workers through H-2B Visas — a federal program that permits U.S. employers to temporarily hire non-immigrants for seasonal work if they can prove the existing labor force isn’t sufficient.
After all, the area’s natural labor pool isn’t what it was when the resort opened. Pembina County’s total population in 2020 was 6,844, down from 10,728 in 1980, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And most locals have full-time jobs, Patty said.
“H-2B made a huge impact last winter,” she said. “We’re finally set with good employees, we have an amazing marketing team and we had a good marketing budget to steer it all out. The new (snow-making) infrastructure finally came in. We had almost 7,000 skiers come in (last season). Our Canadians started to come across, which is amazing. We had the most amazing winter. It was unbelievable.”
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
Now the Foundation has hired Pace Fundraising in Fargo to helm a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign for a new, ADA-compliant amphitheater. A developer is working with the Foundation to add three “ski-in, ski-out” cabins on the property for this winter. And Foundation President Pat Chaput sees more upgrades on the horizon, including improvements to the 9,600-square-foot main lodge.
He believes the Gorders have played a big part in Frost Fire’s renaissance. As Frost Fire’s trail master, Dustin is “a wizard,” Chaput said.
As for Patty, “she has contacts, she’s organized,” he said. “Probably the positivity and passion and knowledge are three things that I think sums her up. She’s just a go-getter.”
The little ski slope that could
Just as the passion of the Gorders helped to revitalize Frost Fire, so did the passion of another couple ignite that frosty spark in the first place.
Grand Forks teachers Richard and Judith Johnson believed building a ski resort amid the scenic splendor of Pembina Gorge was a formula for success. The Gorge offers a vertical drop of about 350 feet, which compares with many ski areas in the Upper Midwest.
They started building Frost Fire in 1974, in the midst of a nationwide ski-resort boom. Between 1960 and 1970, 925 ski resorts were built in the United States and Canada, and a fair share of those were smaller, family-owned enterprises, according to “The White Book of Ski Areas.”
While most resorts constructed their lodges at the base of the mountain, the Johnsons built theirs right in the middle.
“The wonderful thing about this is that we’re in the Pembina Gorge,” Judith told the Grand Forks Herald in 2010, “and we wanted to see the gorge.”
Tammy Swift / The Forum
The Johnsons poured heart and soul into the resort. Their home was located just several hundred feet up the slope from the lodge, and their son, Jay, grew up there.
Frost Fire officially opened its doors on Christmas Day in 1976. Pat Chaput remembers it well. He was a high school senior who learned to ski on Frost Fire’s slopes. “Now I’m teaching my grandkids to ski there,” said the retired farmer/banker.
Chaput worked part time at Frost Fire throughout the ’80s. So did many of his peers. “It was good winter work for folks who were farming or whatever,” he said.
In Frost Fire’s heyday, busloads of Canadians crossed the border to ski there, then ate at a local steakhouse.
Frost Fire hosted 800 to 900 skiers per day, Chaput said.
The Johnsons built an outdoor covered amphitheater in the 1980s, and the Frost Fire Summer Theatre Company started staging summer productions like “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Contributed / Michael Haug Photography
But over time, Frost Fire was affected by the same factors that have hit ski resorts — especially smaller, mom-and-pop operations — nationwide. Baby boomers who frequented the slopes in the 1960s and ‘70s visited the slopes less often.
“Hundred-dollar tickets, transportation difficulties, shifting leisure pursuits, and a changing climate are often cited as key factors” behind the nationwide drop of interest in the sport, the National Forest Foundation website reported.
Richard passed away in 2015. Two years later, Judith sold Frost Fire for $1.67 million to the Pembina Gorge Foundation, a nonprofit that was officially incorporated to preserve the Walhalla attraction and develop it into a four-season destination, according to earlier Forum News Service reports.
The foundation replaced ski equipment, took care of deferred maintenance and, when the original chair lift could no longer be safely used, installed a new chair lift for $1.3 million. A deck was added onto the front of the lodge.
By now, the snow-making infrastructure was nearly 50 years old, but Dustin and crew worked to keep it running for the first few years. In the fall of 2022, it gave up the ghost completely. “We couldn’t make snow, so we lost the whole ski season,” Chaput said.
They were able to secure a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant for $2.25 million to purchase and install a new snow infrastructure in the summer and fall of 2023.
Contributed / Frost Fire Park
Many people assume that a snowy spot like North Dakota shouldn’t need the man-made stuff. “But natural snow is very different from man-made snow. With natural snow, you can have a ton of snow and the next day it’s gone,” Patty said.
Man-made snow contains more water and is heavier, which creates a denser, more resilient foundation for skiing, she added.
Mother Nature complicated matters further. In spring of 2022, flooding washed out the new downhill mountain biking trails and ski trails, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. (The system of 12 ski runs and eight mountain bike trails has since been restored by Frost Fire employees and volunteers.)
Contributed / Frost Fire Park
In 2023, snowfall was so heavy that it caused the roof of the Frost Fire Park amphitheater to collapse.
“It’s been a whole lot of setbacks, I’ll put it that way,” Chaput said.
Keeping the Frost Fire burning
Even so, the “little resort that could” keeps chugging forward.
The Frost Fire Summer Theatre company still managed to stage “Oklahoma!” last summer in the Grafton High School — and continues to offer its ENCORE Youth Arts Camp, a popular program for students grades 3-12 to practice visual and performing arts.
A new developer, Oxford Realty, is working with the foundation to build three modern cabins right on Frost Fire’s runs. The 750-square-foot cabins offer lofts, hot tubs on their decks and expansive windows overlooking the ski areas, Chaput said.
“They’re building them, they’re managing them, they’re doing everything,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a good draw.”
Contributed / Frost Fire Park
They are optimistic about what the next ski season will bring. A La Niña winter is expected, which means lots of snow (good for skiing) and lots of cold (not so good for skiing). Patty prefers to focus on the potential positives, such as the excess snow covering the mountain bike trails. This creates “stash parks,” which naturally blend the technical components of freestyle snowboarding with the flowy lines of mountain freeriding.
“So they become like these little natural terrain parks, which is super,” Patty said. “They’re really fun to ride.”
The foundation’s goal is to grow Frost Fire to the point where it significantly sparks economic development throughout the region.
“It’s an unknown gem, and we’re trying to get the word out and expand our reach. We’re really trying to turn this area into a destination for people to come up and explore and enjoy the outdoors and recreation,” he said.
But in order to do so, community members need to continue supporting all aspects of it — including its special events or bar and grill.
The Gorders continue to work at developing tomorrow’s skiers. Patty sends special offers to local schools to encourage administrators to bring their kids for ski days. She hopes the offers, which include perks like a free ski lesson, will expose kids to skiing and snowboarding early while making them more accessible to people from every background.
“I know that the product we’re delivering in the winter is exceptional,” she said. “We want people to know we have a really great place, not only from the time you come into rentals and ticketing … to having your hot cocoa or sitting by the fire. You’re not just another ticket. We are excited to know that you’re going to come back and be part of the Frost Fire family.”
Learn more about Frost Fire at
www.frostfirepark.org.
North Dakota
Finding a hero: Efforts to identify North Dakota soldier Irvin C. Ellingson’s remains took years
DAHLEN, N.D. — Four years ago, Lon Enerson started writing a book about his uncle, Staff Sgt. Irvin C. Ellingson, and the work to identify his remains.
As Enerson stood in front of the Dahlen Lutheran Church on Saturday, June 20, a casket inside waited for the
funeral and burial
of Ellingson, a soldier who waited 81 years to come home.
“I never thought I would get the final chapter,” Enerson said.
Enerson, along with scores of Ellingson relatives, waited to hear about the identification of Sgt. Ellingson from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, where efforts took place to identify soldiers who died in a Tokyo prison fire during World War II. Ellingson was the third to be identified, with 10 successfully identified so far.
There were a number of Gold Star families — those whose relatives died in the line of duty — present at the Ellingson funeral. Enerson had attended a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery of the second person to be identified.
“We’re cheering for each other,” he said.
Ellingson was 25 and serving as a radar observer on a B-29 in the Pacific Theater when, on April 14, 1945, his plane was shot down during a bombing mission over mainland Japan. He was captured alongside 61 other Air Corps members, interrogated and held at a Tokyo prison. A few weeks later, on May 26, an Allied bombing run over Japan sparked a fire at the prison, killing Ellingson and the others.
The Ellingson family’s wait to bring home his remains began that year, and 81 years later, it finally happened. Enerson said the passion his grandparents felt when Ellingson died filtered down to him and his generation. It created, he said, a “common bond that we needed to get him home.”
In 2018, Enerson received a letter from Michael Krehl, instigator of the search to identify and recover the remains of the prison fire soldiers. Krehl was told by the Defense POW MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) about a process involving DNA that could identify the remains. To get the remains — interred at the American Cemetery in Manila — to Hawaii to start the identification process, 60% of the 62 families of the soldiers had to submit DNA, since the remains were commingled.
Enerson’s mother had died the year before, but two uncles, Bud and Dennis Ellingson, were still alive. They both gave their DNA, along with Enerson.
“I called them, and they were overwhelmed to tears,” Enerson said. “I said ‘I’m going to give the DPAA your address and they’re going to send you DNA sample kits.’ So we got three Ellingson DNA there. Sibling DNA is like gold.”
Barbara Geisler, a family genealogist who found Enerson so he could be sent the letter, prayed over Ellingson’s casket at Saturday’s funeral.
She said the group had to find the families for both missing and identified soldiers.
“We went for the missing first. We thought it was most important,” she said.
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
Though the Ellingson family submitted their DNA, by November of 2021 the percentage of given DNA was stuck at 59.68%, Enerson said. The family went to Washington, D.C., to speak with 17 senators, including North Dakota Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, who signed a bipartisan letter to then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to get the remains.
As the letter went through, one more person submitted DNA to get over the 60% threshold, Enerson said. In spring 2022, the caskets were brought to the lab in Hawaii to begin the identification process.
Kristen Grow and Melissa Menschel were two forensic anthropologists involved in the process. Grow led the Tokyo Prison Fire project in 2024 and Menschel joined last year. They said the process involves an inventory of the remains, taking samples, finding what remains go together and looking at chemical signatures of the bones. There are also forensic odontologists who analyze teeth.
Both Grow and Menschel were present for the funeral and burial.
From 2022 to 2025 seven groups of Ellingsons visited the lab to “potentially be in that same place as Irvin would be,” Enerson said.
“There was no guarantee all along, but we always told them that the Ellingson family does have one guarantee — and that is that we’re not going to stop looking for him,” he said.
Last summer, the family got the call that Ellingson had been identified. The family was told his remains would be escorted home and a full military honors funeral would be provided all at government expense. In September, the family formed a committee made up of family members to map out the details. Enerson said the family decided upon three days of celebration.
Terry Ellingson, Enerson’s cousin, said it “takes a village to get this done.”
“Everybody decided to take care of a certain area,” he said Saturday. “It all got done, but it took a lot of contacts. Even this morning, we were short of buses for people to go to the cemetery. (And then came) a call that Midway Public Schools would provide a couple more buses for us.”
Through it all, Enerson held tight to one sentence within a deceased personnel file he received. It contained all the information the government went through to locate Ellingson.
“The sentence goes like this: ‘Sgt. McGrath saw Staff Sgt. Irvin Ellingson being interrogated at the Kempeitai military headquarters in Tokyo, leaving with 2nd Lt. Andrew Litz, to the Tokyo Military Prison,’” Enerson said. “That was a sentence that I hung onto, and we all hung onto.”
Enerson noted that 2nd Lt. Litz’s nephew and niece were at the Saturday funeral, too.
Enerson has been collecting information through the eight-plus years it took to get Ellingson home. Four years ago, people told him, “Lon, if something happens to you, no one’s going to know (this information),” he said.
“So, I started writing a book,” he said.
His sister, Jane Wood, is editing.
“He’s almost to 400 pages,” she said.
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
BISMARCK — Landowners in Dickey, LaMoure and Stutsman counties made their plea to the North Dakota Supreme Court on Tuesday, June 23, to fight a massive powerline project.
The 90-mile-long “Jamestown to Ellendale” transmission line, also known as JETx, would use towers up to 150 feet tall.
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March 31, 1957 – June 5, 2026
Timothy Paul Ganyo, 69, passed away on Friday, June 5, 2026, after a courageous six-and-a-half-year battle with non-small cell lung cancer.
Tim was born on March 31, 1957, in Grafton, North Dakota, to Willard Paul and Marlene Frances Ganyo. He grew up in Grafton, where he attended school and was active in both hockey and football. During his high school years, he also worked as a lifeguard at the local swimming pool.
Tim proudly served his country for more than three decades. He enlisted in the United States Air Force on December 4, 1977, and served until 1981, with an assignment at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
Following his active-duty service, he joined the Air National Guard while attending North Dakota State University. Later, seeking a new opportunity, Tim joined the Air Force Reserve and relocated to Northern California, where he served at Travis Air Force Base as a flight engineer aboard the C-5 aircraft.
Throughout his distinguished military career, Tim was activated numerous times and served in support of multiple military operations around the world, often flying into war zones. He treasured the friendships he made with his fellow airmen and took great pride in serving alongside the members of the 312th. Tim retired from the United States Air Force Reserve on June 1, 2010.
Committed to lifelong learning, Tim earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Technology in August 2003. Following his military retirement, he worked in the laboratory at Shell Oil Company in Martinez, California.
Tim spent more than 40 years in Northern California, where he met his wife, Roxanne. They shared 34 wonderful years of marriage. He was a devoted husband, a supportive stepdad, and a loving grandpa who cherished time spent with his family.
Tim was a passionate fan of University of North Dakota hockey and proudly remained loyal to the Fighting Sioux throughout his life. He was also a member of the Solano Yacht Club and enjoyed the friendships and camaraderie he found there.
Tim is survived by his mother, Marlene Dvorak; his beloved wife, Roxanne Ganyo; his stepchildren, Ryan Brown, Chad (Tonya) Brown, Jaime Wolf (Dave), and Kristy Brown (Devin); his grandchildren, Calleigh Brown, Jaxon Brown, Taya Wolf, and Jordyn Brown; his brothers, Mark (Rhonda) Ganyo and Michael Ganyo; and many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his father, Willard Paul Ganyo; and his brothers, Ray Ganyo and Philip Ganyo. Tim will be remembered for his strength, dedication, patriotism, sense of adventure, and unwavering love for his family and friends. His presence will be deeply missed and forever cherished by all who knew him.
Family and friends are invited to attend a funeral service on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. at Bryan-Braker Funeral Home Chapel, 1850 West Texas Street, Fairfield, CA
A ceremony with military honors will be held at 12:30 p.m. at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon, California, where Tim will be laid to rest.
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