New England and Regent, North Dakota
Posted by graywacke on May 9, 2010
First timer? In this formerly once-a-day blog (now pretty much an every-other-day blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48). I call this “landing.” I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.
Dan – Oh my. Poised on the brink of the 140s; praying to the LG for a USer to break through; I hit the button to generate the random lat/longs – and I knew instantly I was doomed to an OSer. After all of this time, I’m pretty good at guessing where I’ve landed when I see the lat/long. So, seeing something like 46N 102W, I knew I was in the Dakotas, or maybe MT; all solid OSers. The state? . . . ND; 54/43; 5/10; 3; 150.4.
Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to New England and Regent (I’m ignoring Havelock because it’s just too tiny):
Here’s a broader view (see why my guess was either the Dakotas or MT?):
For the sixth time, I landed in the Cannonball R watershed, on to the Missouri (348th hit); on to the MM (741st hit).
Here’s my GE shot, showing that I landed in a farm field. What I can’t figure out are the green rectangles. They’re pretty big (the two north of my landing are about 1,000 feet long). I assume they’re farm fields of some sort, but I don’t understand their orientation, size and isolation. Very peculiar . . .
Anyway, I couldn’t find much on New England, the larger of the two towns (pop about 600). But here’s what Wiki has to say about Regent:
The population of Regent was 211 at the 2000 census. Regent was founded in 1910. Regent’s Centennial celebration is planned for July 2010.
Regent is home to the “Enchanted Highway,” a series of metal sculptures by artist Gary Greff. Greff and the town of Regent were featured on the “NBC Nightly News” on August 26, 2007.
The 1991-92 Regent Ranger Basketball team played Hettinger North Dakota in District playoff action. The score of the game ended up being Hettinger 4 Regent 2. This game made national news and the score of the game appeared on ESPN Sportscenter.
After a little (very little) research, I couldn’t find anything on the low-scoring basketball game. Boys? Girls? High School? Anyway, the Enchanted Highway also caught my eye. From Wiki:
The Enchanted Highway is a collection of the world’s largest scrap metal sculptures constructed at intervals along a 32 mile stretch of highway in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of North Dakota. Artist Gary Greff conceived of, built it beginning in 1989, plans more sculptures, and maintains the project. The Enchanted Highway extends north from Regent, North Dakota to the Gladstone Interstate 94 exit east of Dickinson. Each sculpture has a developed pull out and several have picnic shelters.
The Enchanted Highway the N-S road north of Regent (labeled CR 4531 on my landing map).
Here’s a picture of my favorite sculpture, “Geese in Flight.”
For pictures of the other sculptures (and more information about the artist), go to the EnchantedHighway.net.
Here are a couple of pictures from near Regent, by Sacoo:
And this classy shot, also near Regent, by Drake Hokanson:
And this wonderful shot by Roma44 (also near Regent):
Enough of Regent; I’ll move on to New England. Here’s a picture of quite the faded sign (it says “Food, Family, Fun”), welcoming you to New England:
Not far from New England are the Rainy Buttes. Here are a couple of pictures from an a ND Geological Survey article “Caves in North Dakota” by Ed Murphy. (The caves up on the Rainy Buttes are fractures/erosional features in sandstone.) Here’s a shot looking out the mouth of Bear Cave:
And here’s a shot from the top of East Rainy, near Bear Cave:
I’ll close with this nice sunset shot of West Rainy Butte:
That’ll do it. . .
KS
Greg
© 2010 A Landing A Day
A Landing a Day 
Loser Son said
The suspense is killing me, fath. Here’s my attempt to jinx the 140s from ever being reached…
“Make sure to post a graph of your score when you go under 150 in the very near future.”
Joel M said
Short version on the Regent, ND vs Hettinger, ND 4-2 basketball game. It was not a joke. I was on the Regent team. We were a terrible team, Hettinger was a very good team. Our coach decided our only hope was to “stall” (as a result of this game I think they installed a shot clock in ND High School Basketball). Hettinger had the ball for about 48 seconds for the entire game. Regent had it for the other 31:12. The score was tied at half time 2-2 due to an offensive rebound put back by Ryan Kudrna as time expired. In the second half Hettinger scored on their first possession (4-2) and didn’t get the ball back. My main memory of the game was watching a future Mr. Basketball finalist stand at the hash mark as a freshman, ball on his hip, tapping his foot waiting for the clock to wind down. Surprisingly he got off a 3-pointer as time expired for the game that, had it gone in, Regent would have won 5-4. The fans were laughing in the stands as they understood what Regent was doing. It was easily the most enjoyable game I remember being involved in.
graywacke said
Joel – thanks much for the background on the big game.
Greg
Joel M said
You’re welcome. There is actually video on youtube of the game if you ever have insomnia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9kwr8NZDjw). As for the large rectangles at odd angles I am familiar with the area (though not necessarily this particular spot) and I think they are fields. Why are they at such odd angles? Simple: The land right along the river is usually very good (the Cannonball does flood occasionally leaving rich, fertile sediment). However the Cannonball is a very “rough” river. It’s surrounded by ravines, small creeks and springs, etc. I would guess that the land that I propose as a field is simply an area of land that happens to be flat enough to allow farm equipment in to farm it. There even seems to be a prairie trail (wheel tracks) leading from the lower left of the “field” on the top right to the Upper right of the “field” in the lower left. I was able to find the same formation on google maps and able to zoom in and there are definite parallel lines which also indicate farming. Again, it is likely that the terrain there is too rough to allow the farmer to seed in a more efficient square, however, the ground is too good to just leave prairie.
graywacke said
Joel – Thanks again! I’m in the process of checking out the game video. I don’t think I’m missing anything by switching back to finish this reply.
As for the unusual rectangles – I’ll take your word on it!