Unheralded

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — ‘The Future Of The Common People’

A little while ago, I inherited a collection of North Dakota History magazines from some really old — well, older than me  — neighbors who moved away to assisted living and had to disperse a lot of things they had collected over the years. Some date back to as early as 1973. I already have a bunch of older ones, even Vol. 1, No. 1, from 1926, which I value, but I think I’m going to donate these from 1973-2018 to the Museum Store at the State Historical Society’s North Dakota Heritage Center for them to sell to collectors, or just people interested in North Dakota history.

But first, if there are any collectors reading this who are missing some issues from any of those years, let me know and if I have them, I’ll give them to you. It’s not a complete set, but if you let me know which ones you’re seeking, I’ll look for them.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch … Rodney Nelson’s ranch, that is … I’m going to share something else with you. While I was paging through the magazines, sorting out which ones I’m going to keep because they had something in them that I was interested in — I’m too old to read all of them in the years I have left, I expect — I came across three sheets of yelllowed paper tucked into one of them. I lifted them out carefully, and there, in his own hand, was a poem about the days of Buffalo Commons (remember that?) by Morton County rancher Rodney Nelson, and old friend of mine who passed away a few years ago. I’m not sure how my neighbor came across that, but it’s now a prized possession of mine.

I loved Rodney Nelson. He lived out by Sims, a now nonexistent town, south of Interstate 94 about 30 miles or so west of Mandan. I remember when the Highway Department built a new rest area out by his place on the interstate, a really nice rest area, with a really nice building. Rodney thought it was a bit extravagant and called it his “million-dollar biffy.”

Rodney was a poet, and he liked to call himself a “cowboy poet” because, well, he was also a cowboy. And he hung out with others of his ilk. Anyway, I thought I might share it with you. It’s good poem. Rodney published a couple of books of his poems, and they’re all good. And it’s in his own hand. You don’t get to see those very often.

It’s called “The Future of the Common People.” As in Buffalo Commons, but you get the double entendre.

How ’bout that!





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