Dakotafire Get your spark here.

Another 8-year-old might have spent his birthday money on toys or games for his iPod. Not Trey Jensen. Instead, the Langford boy invested his $100 in his community. Read More »

Transfer of wealth data show that more resources are available in our communities than we might have realized. And we know many of our communities are strapped for resources. How can we connect the two? Read More »

By Heidi Marttila-Losure Read the obituaries in your local newspaper, and you’ll find stories of lives well-lived (and, perhaps more interestingly, sometimes not-so-well-lived). Most of the obits also have a clue as to whether that personal life story fits into a larger story that will significantly affect rural Dakota communities in coming decades. Here’s how to tell: In the list of ... Read More »

A few years ago, when I was editing a women’s magazine published by The Tribune in Ames, Iowa, I covered a women’s philanthropy event at Iowa State University. The speaker that day was a woman named Kay Ballard, and she wasn’t afraid to get the audience a little riled. Read More »

Public water on public land is open to the public. But what about private land now covered by public water? Read More »

Britton hosted the inaugural Dakotafire Café event on March 28, and it served to fuel some thinking on how the community might do a better job of attracting workers. Read More »

Want to know how Gackle, N.D., has changed since its heyday in the 1950s? The person to ask is Marilyn Elhard, who has watched the changes from her viewpoint behind the counter at the local bank. She’s been there for almost 61 years—outlasting several owners, and having a longer tenure on Main Street than most of the businesses that remain. Read More »

We're slowly traveling along an expanse of snowy pasture. It’s been a rough winter in this part of South Dakota, with a parade of blizzards and cold fronts. Foot travel would be treacherous on this icy roadway, but it’s the only route across this prairie. So we crawl ahead in a pickup truck. The land bordering the two-track is so densely draped by dormant grasses and drifted snow that hiking there would be nearly impossible. On a windless day, a calm settles over the smooth topography. The sun glows yellow-orange, and a cloud-free sky surrounds us in a dome of frigid blue air. If you conjure a romanticized image of the Great Plains in winter, this might be what you visualize. Read More »

During the Dakotas' early settlement by non-natives, in the 1880s and 90s, business interests such as immigration promoters and railroad and land development companies lured prospective residents to our region using the jingle: rain follows the plow. Read More »

Farmers are increasingly installing drain tile to make land more farmable. Water comes from somewhere and goes somewhere, however. Here’s a look at the system. Read More »