Why You Shouldn’t Make Fun of North Dakota

My home state has gotten a lot of flack over the years and North Dakotan’s are known to be fiercely loyal to our state. I’m not sure why, especially considering many of us couldn’t have gotten out of there faster.

I moved away for the last time when I was all of 27 years old and have only been back to visit family. Yet, when people complain about the cold weather (it’s just as cold here in Minnesota), or go on and on about how flat it is (only in the Red River Valley. Where I grew up it was hilly and there were even trees!), or do something as inane as try to truncate the name to Dakota (NORTH! Dakota), I’m always there to defend my tiny, oft-forgotten state.

Someday, I want to write a story set in my hometown. It was a great place to grow up. We had a strong arts community, and since we had a military base close by, we also had a more diverse population than most of the rest of the state which is white, white, white, white with a few Native American’s scattered about.

Things have changed dramatically in the last several years. Population has started to grow and people are moving from all over the country up north to find jobs in the Bakken oil fields. North Dakota is one of the few states in the nation that has actually done well in the economic downturn the rest of the country has experienced.

All that being said, my husband ran across this video of Dave Barry talking about why you shouldn’t make fun of North Dakota. This was posted in 2007, so some of the facts are outdated. It’s funny, just the same.




Looking for Something?