North Dakota's historic sites will finally have toilets that flush
The bandleader's childhood family home marks the latest step in the State Historical Society of North Dakota's nearly completed goal of installing flush toilets at its dozen most popular, staffed sites. The most recent success, with the final three planned to be completed soon, came before the unveiling of a statue of Welk at a site that draws fans who recall 'The Lawrence Welk Show,' which ran on TV for decades starting in the 1950s.
The North Dakota group's goal of replacing pit toilets with flush units may seem like a humble aspiration to some, but it's an important milestone, said Chris Dorfschmidt, a historic sites manager.
'A lot of our sites are kind of in the middle of nowhere. As I like to put it, history didn't happen where it's convenient,' he said. 'Because of that, if you've driven all the way out there, and that's the best we can do to kind of accommodate you, it's not the most pleasant experience.'
North Dakota has 60 state historic sites — everything from museums and an underground nuclear launch facility to plaques mounted on boulders in fields.
'All of our sites, they really do help share a story of us as a state,' Dorfschmidt said.
Two other facilities are slated to be finished by June 30: at Whitestone Hill, the site of a deadly 1863 attack by U.S. troops against Native Americans; and Fort Buford, a military fort near the Missouri-Yellowstone river confluence.
The Historical Society also is eyeing the Chateau de Mores for flush toilets. The wealthy Marquis de Mores built the 26-room home in 1883 near Medora, a present-day tourist town in the state's scenic Badlands where a young President Theodore Roosevelt once roamed.
Less-visited sites that aren't staffed likely won't receive a restroom upgrade, which costs about $150,000 each.
At the Welk Homestead, about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) southeast of Bismarck, workers matched the color scheme of the restroom to the house and farm buildings, including interior colors.
'We made it to fit into the site and harmonize with the site and just be a pleasant part of the experience,' Historic Sites Manager Rob Hanna said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
17 minutes ago
- The Hill
Japan marks 80th anniversary of WWII surrender as concern grows about fading memory
TOKYO (AP) — Japan is paying tribute to more than 3 million war dead as the country marks its surrender 80 years ago, ending the World War II, as concern grows about the rapidly fading memories of the tragedy of war and the bitter lessons from the era of Japanese militarism. In a national ceremony Friday at Tokyo's Budokan hall, about 4,500 officials and bereaved families and their descendants from around the country will observe a moment of silence at noon, the time when the then-emperor's surrender speech began on Aug. 15, 1945. Just a block away at Yasukuni Shrine, seen by Asian neighbors as a symbol of militarism, dozens of Japanese rightwing politicians and their supporters came to pray. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stayed away from Yasukuni and sent a religious ornament as a personal gesture instead of praying at the controversial shrine. But Shinjiro Koizumi, the agriculture minister considered as a top candidate to replace the beleaguered prime minister, prayed at the shrine. Koizumi, the son of popular former Prime Minitser Junichiro Koizumi whose Yasukuni visit as a serving leader in 2001 outraged China, is a regular at the shrine. Rightwing lawmakers, including former economic security ministers Sanae Takaichi and Takayuki Kobayashi, as well as governing Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Koichi Hagiuda, also visited the shrine Friday. The shrine honors convicted war criminals, among about 2.5 million war dead. Victims of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan's wartime past. As the population of wartime generations rapidly decline, Japan faces serious questions on how it should pass on the wartime history to the next generation, as the country has already faced revisionist pushbacks under former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his supporters in the 2010s. Since 2013, Japanese prime ministers stopped apologizing to Asian victims, under the precedent set by Abe. Some lawmakers' denial of Japan's military role in massive civilian deaths on Okinawa or the Nanking Massacre have stirred controversy. In an editorial Friday, the Mainichi newspaper noted that Japan's pacifist principle was mostly about staying out of global conflict, rather than thinking how to make peace, and called the country to work together with Asian neighbors as equal partners. 'It's time to show a vision toward 'a world without war' based on the lesson from its own history,' the Mainichi said.
San Francisco Chronicle
17 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Japan marks 80th anniversary of WWII surrender as concern grows about fading memory
TOKYO (AP) — Japan is paying tribute to more than 3 million war dead as the country marks its surrender 80 years ago, ending the World War II, as concern grows about the rapidly fading memories of the tragedy of war and the bitter lessons from the era of Japanese militarism. In a national ceremony Friday at Tokyo's Budokan hall, about 4,500 officials and bereaved families and their descendants from around the country will observe a moment of silence at noon, the time when the then-emperor's surrender speech began on Aug. 15, 1945. Just a block away at Yasukuni Shrine, seen by Asian neighbors as a symbol of militarism, dozens of Japanese rightwing politicians and their supporters came to pray. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stayed away from Yasukuni and sent a religious ornament as a personal gesture instead of praying at the controversial shrine. But Shinjiro Koizumi, the agriculture minister considered as a top candidate to replace the beleaguered prime minister, prayed at the shrine. Koizumi, the son of popular former Prime Minitser Junichiro Koizumi whose Yasukuni visit as a serving leader in 2001 outraged China, is a regular at the shrine. Rightwing lawmakers, including former economic security ministers Sanae Takaichi and Takayuki Kobayashi, as well as governing Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Koichi Hagiuda, also visited the shrine Friday. The shrine honors convicted war criminals, among about 2.5 million war dead. Victims of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan's wartime past. As the population of wartime generations rapidly decline, Japan faces serious questions on how it should pass on the wartime history to the next generation, as the country has already faced revisionist pushbacks under former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his supporters in the 2010s. Since 2013, Japanese prime ministers stopped apologizing to Asian victims, under the precedent set by Abe. Some lawmakers' denial of Japan's military role in massive civilian deaths on Okinawa or the Nanking Massacre have stirred controversy. In an editorial Friday, the Mainichi newspaper noted that Japan's pacifist principle was mostly about staying out of global conflict, rather than thinking how to make peace, and called the country to work together with Asian neighbors as equal partners. 'It's time to show a vision toward 'a world without war' based on the lesson from its own history,' the Mainichi said.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
South Korea's president vows to restore 2018 inter-Korean military agreement to ease tensions
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's new liberal president, Lee Jae Myung, said Friday he will seek to restore a 2018 military agreement with North Korea aimed at reducing border tensions and urged Pyongyang to respond to Seoul's efforts to rebuild trust and revive dialogue. Speaking on the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee's overture came amid soaring tensions fueled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions and deepening ties with Russia over the war in Ukraine. The 2018 military agreement, reached during a brief period of diplomacy between Kim and South Korea's former liberal President Moon Jae-in, created buffer zones on land and sea and no-fly zones above the border to prevent clashes. South Korea's previous conservative government suspended the deal in 2024, citing tensions over North Korea's launches of trash-laden balloons toward the South, and moved to resume frontline military activities and propaganda campaigns. The step came after North Korea had already declared it would no longer abide by the agreement. 'To prevent accidental clashes between South and North Korea and to build military trust, we will take proactive, gradual steps to restore the (2018) Sept. 19 military agreement,' Lee said in a televised speech. Lee said his government affirms 'our respect for the North's current system' and that the wealthier South 'will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and has no intention of engaging in hostile acts.' Lee said South Korea remains committed to an international push to denuclearize North Korea and urged Pyongyang to resume dialogue with Washington and Seoul. Amid a prolonged diplomatic stalemate with its rivals, Kim's government has made clear it has no intention of giving up the weapons it sees as its strongest guarantee of survival and would reject any future talks on denuclearization. 'Denuclearization is a complex and difficult task that cannot be resolved quickly,' Lee said. 'However, inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korea dialogue as well as international cooperation will help us approach a peaceful resolution.' Lee, who took office after winning an early election in June following the ouster of his conservative predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol over a brief imposition of martial law in December, has taken steps to repair ties with the North, including the removal of South Korean frontline loudspeakers that Yoon's government had used to blast anti-North Korean propaganda and K-pop across the border. It's unclear whether North Korea would respond to Lee's overture. Expressing anger over Yoon's hardline policies and expansion of South Korean-U.S. military exercises, Kim last year declared that North Korea was abandoning long-standing goals of a peaceful unification with South Korea and rewrote the North's constitution to mark the South as a permanent enemy. Lee's speech came a day after Kim's powerful sister mocked his government for clinging to hopes of renewed diplomacy between the war-divided rivals, and misleading the public by falsely claiming the North had removed its own frontline speakers as a reciprocal gesture toward the South. Kim Yo Jong also reiterated previous North Korean statements that it has no immediate interest in reviving long-stalled negotiations with Washington and Seoul, citing an upcoming joint military exercise between the allies as proof of their continued hostility toward Pyongyang. Analysts say North Korea clearly sees no urgency to resume diplomacy with South Korea or the United States, remaining focused on its alignment with Russia. Since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Pyongyang has made Moscow the priority of its foreign policy, sending thousands of troops and large quantities of military equipment, including artillery and missiles, to help fuel the war.
