North Dakota
Nelson County farmer credited with saving men from freezing to death after crash
MCVILLE, N.D. — Nobody knows the land around North Dakota better than farmers, and that knowledge proved critical after a bizarre car crash in Nelson County.
Sheriff Kurt Schwind said an unnamed farmer’s help was lifesaving after rescue crews called off an initial search for the occupants of the vehicle and nearly halted a second one.
If the second search had been called off, Schwind said, two men likely would have frozen to death.
County dispatch received the call about the crash around 6 a.m. on Dec. 9; the caller became disconnected.
“Says he was sleeping, he was in the car with a couple guys, he was sleeping, woke up they were gone, the vehicle was crashed so he started walking,” Schwind said.
The call came from a refurbished phone, so officers were not able to call the person back, but a cellphone ping brought them to the farmstead.
Bodycam footage obtained by WDAY shows a Nelson County sheriff’s deputy talking with the farmer, who was curious about all of the police activity on his property.
After searching for about an hour and a half, police called off the search until sunrise.
“It was so dark and we had some blowing snow and stuff like that, so it was really hard to see anything at that point,” Schwind said.
When the sheriff returned after sunrise, the farmer showed him something.
“That’s when the landowner realized that this gate had been broken through,” Schwind said.
The tracks the farmer and police followed for a half-mile through a cow pasture were still visible days later. A wire fence was also driven through. It led investigators to the top of a ravine, and several hundred feet below, they spotted a four-door car.
“How they got through there with that BMW is amazing, because we had to use four-wheel drive, and we struggled getting down there,” Schwind said.
At about the same time, Schwind found the man who called 911. He had climbed the ravine and sought shelter in some hay. He had no shoes or coat. He told police he was alone.
“He was in bad shape. As soon as I got him into my vehicle, he had uncontrollable shivering; he was very incoherent,” Schwind said.
As the sheriff raced the man to the hospital, the farmer, who had stayed at the top of the ravine, made another key discovery.
“He got his binoculars out and saw him sitting in the trees,” Schwind said of another man.
It took rescue crews nearly an hour to rescue the second man. According to WDAY StormTRACKER meteorologists, the wind chill was below zero.
“I think if the landowner wouldn’t have met me back over here, that we would have been recovering as opposed to finding,” Schwind said.
The sheriff said the men were traveling from Grand Forks to Devils Lake, but it’s unclear how long they were in the ravine and how they ended up several miles off the main road.
“They both had phones that had charges left in them,” Schwind said. “For some reason, they didn’t call — they only called that one time and didn’t call again.”
While WDAY News was talking with the sheriff for this story, a deputy found a jacket, boots and phone a couple hundred feet from where the first man was found in the hay. What looked like methamphetamine was found in a pill container in the jacket pocket.
The Nelson County Sheriff’s Office plans on presenting the farmer with an award for his lifesaving help.
The Sheriff’s Office is still investigating to determine if the men will face charges.
McVille is about 67 miles southwest of Grand Forks.
Matt Henson is an Emmy award-winning reporter/photographer/editor for WDAY. Prior to joining WDAY in 2019, Matt was the main anchor at WDAZ in Grand Forks for four years.
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – Here’s something North Dakotans can take pride in: North Dakota has the third-highest average IQ in the nation, tying with Vermont at 103.8. That is 3.5 points above the national average.
The state with the highest average is Massachusetts at 104.3 and the state with the lowest average is Mississippi at 94.2.
Ninety-four percent of North Dakotans graduate high school, making it the state with the sixth-highest graduation rate in the nation.
Copyright 2026 KFYR. All rights reserved.
WEST FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – Authorities have identified the man killed and the driver involved in a fatal overnight crash in West Fargo.
Jose Rodriguez, 38, of West Fargo, died after being struck by a vehicle early Wednesday morning, according to the North Dakota State Patrol.
The driver, Carly Vizenor, 25, of West Fargo, was not injured. Charges and restraint use remain under investigation.
The crash happened at approximately 2:46 a.m. Wednesday near the intersection of 32nd Avenue South and 9th Street West.
According to the State Patrol, a 2016 Ford Fusion was traveling westbound on 32nd Avenue South when it struck Rodriguez, who was crossing the street approximately 20 to 30 yards east of the 9th Street intersection.
The driver left the scene and returned approximately 10 minutes later.
Rodriguez was pronounced dead at the scene.
The North Dakota State Patrol, West Fargo Police Department, and West Fargo Fire Department all responded to the crash.
The investigation remains ongoing.
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
Getty
NDSU could make the CFP in 2026.
Winning has been the standard at North Dakota State for decades, and one college football analyst expects a similar result in the FBS right away.
Brett McMurphy of On3 believes NDSU will run the table 12-0 with a Mountain West Conference championship and make the College Football Playoff. McMurphy projects the Bison to face Oregon in the CFP, the Fargo Forum’s Jeff Kolpack reported.
That would mean the Bison would go on the road to Eugene against a perennial FBS contender, which didn’t go well for the last Group of Six team to play the Ducks. Oregon steamrolled James Madison 51-34 in last season’s CFP before the Ducks took down Texas Tech and lost to eventual national champion Indiana.
It’s not impossible for the Bison to get that far based on Sagarin Ratings and the program’s history of success against FBS teams. The Bison would need to maximize what they can control and to have a few things fall their way.
That said, all of this would be contingent upon the Bison receiving clearance for postseason competition from the NCAA on Thursday. Transitioning teams normally face a two-year postseason ban, and NDSU had been in a similar situation before, with a four-year postseason ban during the move from Division II to the FCS in 2004.
NDSU Looking to Pass JMU Again
In 2016, the JMU interrupted NDSU’s five-year FCS championship run with a playoff upset at the Fargodome.
NDSU then beat JMU in the 2017 season championship to win a sixth title in seven years. The Bison beat JMU again in the FCS championship game again for the 2019 season before the Dukes joined the FBS in 2022.
JMU’s success at the FBS level has resulted in two bowl game appearances and Sun Belt Conference title. Amid the conference crown, the Dukes slipped into the CFP as the ACC went topsy-turvy when a 5-5 Duke Blue Devils team at the time upset Virginia.
JMU made the CFP, and Miami represented the ACC while Notre Dame sat at home despite a 10-2 record and a close early-season loss to the national runner-up Hurricanes. NDSU, meanwhile, had a 12-0 regular season in the FCS and got stunned in the FCS playoffs by Illinois State, the second team ever to win a playoff game in Fargo.
The Bison looked like a program retooling to get back up from a postseason disappointment in January, but February brought the news of NDSU’s long-anticipated move up to the FBS. The Mountain West Conference invited the Bison amid the conference’s restructuring with five teams leaving for the Pac-12.
That made the former FCS titan attractive to the Mountain West, which notably lost former CFP entrant Boise State. Whether or not NDSU can become the Mountain West’s new Boise State or pass JMU as a premiere Group of Six team remains unknown.
Common Opponents Key For Bison
The Bison have the odds stacked against them in 2026 to make the CFP, but it’s not impossible.
NDSU doesn’t have a Power Four opponent, but the Bison can make up for that by margin of victory, especially with any Mountain West contenders that have Power Four opponents during the season.
New Mexico has the biggest Power Four opponent among Mountain West teams with Oklahoma, and UTEP faces Oklahoma and Michigan. San Jose State faces USC, another team with CFP hopes.
NDSU beating New Mexico, UTEP and San Jose State handily will especially help in making a run for the playoff.
Matthew Davis covers the NFL, WNBA and college sports for Heavy.com. As a contributing writer to the StarTribune, he has also covered Minnesota prep sports since 2016. More about Matthew Davis
-
Wisconsin1 minute ago‘Song Sung Blue’ subject Claire Sardina playing Wisconsin State Fair
-
West Virginia7 minutes agoMorrisey signs Baylea’s Law, increasing criminal penalties in W.Va. for DUI causing death
-
Wyoming13 minutes agoObituaries: Mothersbaugh Jr.
-
Crypto19 minutes agoTucker Carlson Calls Markets ‘Fake’ After 60 Days of Middle East Conflict
-
Finance25 minutes agoUK watchdog says car finance legal challenge hearing unlikely before October
-
Fitness31 minutes ago“No Pain No Gain” May Be Wrong: Science Says Slow Eccentric Exercise Builds Stronger Muscles
-
Movie Reviews43 minutes ago8News Reel Talk: ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ movie review
-
World55 minutes ago‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Boss on the Season 22 Finale: How Teddy and Owen Say Goodbye and That Surprising Meredith Twist