December 25, 2024 • 37 mins
Kate Waldera continues the conversation with Mark Hanson & Stephani Baltzer about MDU's 100th Anniversary.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to History Hot Dish, a casual conversation about the
historic people and events that give Bismarket's unique flavor. History
Hot Dish is brought to you by the Bismarck Historical Society,
a local nonprofit whose mission is to learn, preserve, and
promote the history of Bismarck. Sit back, turn up the
volume and enjoy another helping of History Hot Dish.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome to another episode of History Hot Dish. I'm your host,
Kate Waldera, a member of the Bismarck Historical Society's Board
of Directors. You're listening to part two of a two
part episode of History Hot Dish. Our returning guests are
Mark Hanson, the senior public relations representative, and Stephanie Baalser,
(00:44):
the supervisor of Record Information with MDU Resources Group. And
today we're going to continue talking about the history of
MDU Resources Group, celebrating their one hundredth anniversary this year.
One really interesting service that you that the company had
(01:04):
was the home service department and appliance sales. And in
the first episode we talked about the early days, and
with this episode, we want to focus on things that
our audience may remember from the more recent years. Like
many communities, Bizmarck had a growth spurt in the fifties
and sixties, and MDU certainly has kept up with the
(01:27):
demand for housing and businesses. So share with us some
of the ways that MDU kept up with the trends
and the needs of the residents, and then maybe some
of the events, you know that our audience may remember
from recent years.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So the Home Service Department, it started very early in
the company. I haven't been able to figure out exactly
when it started, but they were kind of the frontline
for understanding what the customers were looking for, what they needed,
(02:04):
because they often went out into the community to just
work with people and work with them on their appliances
and increase you know, natural gas usage. So they apparently
(02:25):
in all of all of the publications they called them girls,
so you know, that was the dated reference for them.
But they all had to have a college degree of
some kind of home economics. They often did TV spots.
They went out into people's homes actually and help them
(02:49):
understand how to use everything from their stove to their refrigerator,
you know, all of the major appliances, how to clean them,
how to service them, and then and do you sold
appliances and then they also serviced them, so it was
kind of this round robin of service for people. And
(03:12):
they also sent out videos and film strips to schools.
They went out and did presentations at schools.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
And.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
We had a lot of the videos and film strips
still and I just started going through a lot of
a bunch of those, and they're kind of entertaining some
of the names because it was, you know, how to
use your microwave or how to use your your stove.
And we also have a lot of photographs of the
time too, because they would do in Minneapolis. There was
(03:48):
a production company that they worked with and so they
would they would actually make the videos that they sent
out to people, and in nineteen fifty eight operated twenty
three electrical appliance stores. And you watch it over time
and you kind of you see the trends that MD
(04:10):
was was staying with. You know, it kind of went
from gas appliances in the thirties, I mean like gas
refrigerators even and.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I never knew there could be a gas run refrigerator.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, gas refrigerators, and then it, you know, electric started
taking more hold over things. And even at one point
there was compressed natural gas for vehicles. I found some
photos of some grand openings at some some filling stations
(04:47):
for compressed national Yes, so these were.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Full blown vehicles. They weren't, you know, like yard equipment
or anything.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
No vehicles. Yeah, I'm not sure what all happened with
that whole thing, but didn't take and didn't last very long,
but it was I think it was in the seventies
and eighties. It kind of was rolling trend and then
it just didn't go very far.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Yeah, we had the refail stations, you know, located where
we served kind of larger customer basis. So there was
one in Bismarck and in Dickinson, and I know there
was one in Billings and probably I'm gonna guess one
in Glendever Miles City in between that for refilling and
and the other idea was some other there. There was
(05:35):
a large company that built buses and as they and
they were natural gas buses, so they would fill at
our stations, making it from wherever they were you know, manufactured,
to where their endpoint was. But over time and towards
the end, they just weren't being used and parts were
(05:56):
hard to find because it was an older system, and
so they kind of just closed all that down and
didn't offer to sell it anymore or use it in
our vehicles.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So I would imagine that that whole thing could have
been pretty cumbersome because I'm not sure what the tank
would have looked like on a vehicle like that, and
to have any quantity of gas to keep the vehicle running.
It's kind of now the conundrum that some people with
their electric vehicles had as finding the charging stations. So
this was kind of a precursor to that, except it
(06:27):
was natural gas. Now that is intriguing. I did not
realize that that is very very interesting, to say the least.
Then as far as like the home office excuse me,
the home service departments that you had, there was a
(06:48):
TV show that had been out there I think in
the mid mid fifties before the Food Network, and that
can you speak to that a little bit, not too much.
Mostly we have photos of it, and they they did
(07:10):
do they did make up some scripts too. We do
have some of the scripts that they used for those videos.
And I don't know if it was a regular segment
or not, or but I think it was on KFYR. Yeah,
it was Kate higher and it was according to the
notes here, it says Monday nights and it was a
missus Florence Pierce that was the star of the show.
(07:36):
And they said that she was just a natural in
front of the camera, you know, she went without a script.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
And yeah, it seemed that a lot of these ladies
were quite good at presenting and just having a good
rapport with people. They just they and all of the
photos they have, I mean they have an insane amount
of fat and everything is described so it's beautiful. And
(08:05):
they they really, they really got out there. I think
they were probably the frontline of the customer service for
the company.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And then any other interaction went from there. Well that
made sense. You know, homes were being set up and
people were buying these appliances, and they wanted to learn
how to use them effectively and all the good help
that they got from MDU and how to use them,
how to take care of them, and even how to
do the cooking on them, you know, and prepare meals,
(08:38):
and that that would have been something that I think
they would have really enjoyed in that particular time period.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I think so too. And I think you know, they
the fact that they went out and they did these
kinds of things too. I think help obviously helped us
and to the company, because if people know how to
use their appliance is they're likely not going to you know,
wreck them. And then there's less service calls and you know,
(09:06):
something can be solved simply by just having one of
the home service people go out there and say, oh, hey,
no you didn't turn this button on or something.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well, and that just makes it, you know, like you said,
it was the front lines, and it got people really
enthusiastic and feeling good, you know about the company. They
set the tone, you know, and they hit people where
they really needed, you know, in the fields. You know,
they got them where the need was. So that was
very That was just extremely interesting to read about as well.
(09:40):
And then in the sixties there was a lot of
changes in our community as well. Downtown was the center
of shopping and entertainment, Dakota Zoo began welcoming families and friends,
and then the grimsrud Re Elementary opened its doors in
the mid sixties. So a change for him do you
took place in Octo over of nineteen sixty six with
(10:02):
the steam to gas conversion project can you share with
us how that all came about and how that was
accomplished and how many businesses were affected with that.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
So as we mentioned, as I mentioned in episode one,
there was the Bismarck Power Plant and that was on
the corner of Third and Front, and that supplied the
steam heating for the city. In nineteen sixty four, and
do you had to increase the rates for steam heat
(10:36):
because it was getting to be so expensive to operate
that plant, and it had been the first time since
nineteen forty eight, and so people were kind of cranky
about it. So I think and do you really started
looking at what's our next step? How do we, you know,
move this war. Because Bismarck was also one of the
(10:57):
last places to be converted because Mannon had been converted
in nineteen fifty three. So we had to go to
the Public Service Commission and we got authorized to abandoned
that steam system and convert to gas. And at that
time that conversion was the biggest that MDU had ever undertook,
(11:21):
and they basically had to rebuild the distribution system in
downtown in downtown to furnish the gas and the about
ninety three steam customers were converted from steam heat to
gas heat. And it took place in the time span
of from May to October. So they were basically digging
(11:44):
up all of downtown. And they had I think a crew,
a permanent crew of fifteen and then they had like
temporary help of another ten guys, and so it sounded
like it was kind of a revolting door project. They
kind of had to be on the ground to see
(12:04):
what was happening because they would come up with, you know,
weird situations would happen because you're working in narrow alleys
and you're going down major streets downtown. And at the
time that they completed it, they had to remove twelve
four hundred linear square feet of concrete and they laid
(12:28):
down a total of ten thousand and eighty feet of
pipe and two hundred and thirty five feet of casing
that was installed. So it was a big undertaking. And
then then that's when they decommissioned the Bismarck power Plant
in nineteen sixty seven, when they finished that project, and
then the power plant wasn't torn down until nineteen eighty seven, okay,
(12:52):
And they had been trying to find a buyer and
try to repurpose the building because I think it was
built around nineteen oh six, but it was too too
much money to rehab the building, and so they ended
up just tearing it down. And then they also it
was kind of interesting they before they tore it down,
they had supposedly the whistle from the Far West Oh
(13:16):
that they sounded before they they did it. Some people
aren't convinced it was the actual Far West whistle, but
they use that to bring the power plant down.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Okay. Interesting just how everything evolves, you know, and that
steamed gas conversion. To have them get it done in
that short of time, that was pretty monumental. It was.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
It was a big, big project. We had a lot
of information about it, excellent. Well, now many of our
listeners know that the building on the corner of North
Forth and East Ross Or they know that building as
the MDU building, and there's dozens of employees that work there.
And I know you've got some interesting tidbits about the
(14:06):
building from the Mandakonian newsletters that MD produced in the
fifties and sixties. Can you share some of the interesting facts.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And I really want to hear about super garbage gobblers.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, that's kind of an interesting though. We'll say that
for the end the finale. So the move was announced
in December of nineteen sixty six. It was a big
deal because from nineteen twenty four to that timeframe it
had been located in Minneapolis, and they were going to
(14:44):
relocate about seventy general office employees to Bismarck, and they
bought basically that whole east half of the block. They
bought the Elks building in nineteen sixty six to kind
of house employees until the new building was completed, and
(15:08):
they had an open house, and it was a big
deal and they started construction and the architects were the
Ritterbrush Brothers. Okay, well known form downs. Yep, we still
have the model that they constructed of the building and
(15:30):
the building itself. They wanted to make it kind of
a modern office building, and so they were trying to
incorporate a lot of modern ideas and I think I
think they were. They were good on the surface, but
I don't think they lasted very long. One of them
was they had heated sidewalks for a time. I don't
(15:52):
know how long that lasted. They're definitely not heated now.
And then they had, uh, they had a groundbreaking in
nineteen sixty seven and Governor William Guy was there and
(16:12):
they were very he was very excited about the relocation
because it was, you know, a big company coming into town.
And that also, I think created some friction with the
local business community. I've heard from older employees that the
(16:33):
local commerce community wasn't overly welcoming to the company when
we first came. And I think it was just a
matter of probably you know, people thinking that it was oh,
these big time Minneapolis people are coming here and they're
thinking they're going to take over or something.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
So yeah, everybody just had to find their niche and
learn what each other was about, right, Yeah, So I
think there was there was a little bit of friction.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
But.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
They really they went above and beyond to try and
make it modern, and they they did heating, air conditioning,
and humidity control with a combination of both gas and
electrical and their lighting system apparently was the first of
(17:27):
its kind and Bismarck and it will and I don't
know exactly what this means, but they said it will
provide all the heat needed until the temperature falls below freezing.
So the lighting system was apparently providing ambient heat I'm
not entirely sure. And then you know, and now that's
(17:49):
kind of what I got from reading that as well. Yeah,
it was. It was interesting, and of course they wanted
to make the electoral system one of the most modern
and efficient in the Midwest. And the cost for the
building was about one point seventy five million dollars when
it was completed, and it's five stories. And then they
(18:13):
also put a patio on the roof, which sounds good
in theory, but we're dealing with North yes, exactly, we're
dealing with North Dakota. And I've heard conflicting stories as
to why it didn't last very long. And some of
it was apparently some of the patio furniture would get
blown off the top that could be dangerous. They yeah,
(18:36):
so safety violations. And it was also I think up
on a raised platform, and I think the platform just
started to decay at some point.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
So it's drive by an avalanche or come through. Not
real good, not good.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
For pr No, So they they that patio is no
longer in service, but it's still on the model, so
that's kind of cool. And then they had special effects
lighting to illuminate the building's exterior and they also had
a ground floor display area and the walkway was going
(19:14):
to be lighted that night. And then later on they
also put a museum in the lobby, and they spent
a lot of time and a lot of effort to
make this museum. So they had like a full fledged
display down there and people to come in and look
at it. And then when they tore it down, they
put it in boxes for twenty years.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So the museum is no longer there.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
No, it's no longer there, but we have all the stuff,
so okay, it's just in my area. Now you get
to take care of Yeah, I get to take care
of it. And then okay, So the super Garbage Grobbler
it was a waste removal system and it was supposed
to have like a garbage shoot and you could put
(20:00):
things like paper, plastic bottles, cans, food milk carts, like
the whole nine yards down the chute and then it
would go into a pulper which would chew it all up,
and then all of that would be pumped into a
water press and then after the water squeezed out, it
(20:23):
would get discharged into a waste container. And I'm really
curious as too if they had somebody to come and
service that it was a special service, and their whole
thing was it was supposed to eliminate the problems of
air pollution and fly ash, so I think they were
(20:44):
talking about burning or stuff before or something. So yeah,
there was trash, choots and all kinds of things. And
I don't know how long this lasted. I don't think
it lasted very long because I talked to my former
boss and she started in the early eighties and she
says she does not remember such a thing.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
So it sounds like it was a unique toy for
a while. And then again it probably went the way
of the natural gas vehicles.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Well I can't imagine that. I mean, as with everything,
people don't always pay attention to the direction, so I
can only imagine that there was probably food stuff stuck
on the shoots on the way down to the to the.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Whoever would have to cleaning it would not be a
fun job.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I think the maintenance on it probably is what killed it.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So yeah, but it's got a cool name, super garbage Gobbler.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I don't know really am up with that one, but
that's pretty well.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It certainly did gobble the garbage, whether it was efficient
or not as a whole other game. Well, a reminder
for our guests that have just joined us. You're listening
to History Hot Dish on Radio Access one oh two
point five FM. I'm your host, Kate Waldera, and today
our guests are Mark Hanson and Stephanie Balzer with the
(22:09):
MDU Resources Group, and you're listening to part two of
a two part episode of History Hot Dish where we're
celebrating one hundred years of service by Montana Dakota Utilities.
Now we're going to move off into diversification because, as
we have alluded to in the previous episode, there were
(22:30):
a lot of subsidiaries and spin offs and partner organizations
within the Resources Group. Let's talk about some of the
larger organizations and how they became a part of the
group and what services the listeners might recognize.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Sure, as we talked a little bit about Stephanie did
in part one where the company got into coal mining
and oil and gas exploration, and that was back in
the mid thirties to mid forties. The coal mining lasted
quite a while. The oil and gas exploration we kind
of had some starts and stops depending on you know,
(23:09):
pricing and everything, and it wasn't a huge part of
the business then, but as it grew through just natural
natural gas and electric growth, we got to a point
where the Corporation of just Montana Dakota I talked about
expanding into some different areas and so they created a
(23:30):
corporate umbrella which is MDU Resources Group, and that was
created in nineteen eighty five. And around that time they
also transitioned the coal mining into aggregate mining. So they
took the expertise they had to mine coal and then
turn that into mining aggregates and Knife River Materials, and
(23:51):
Knife River Corporation was created, moving away from coal mining
and getting into aggregates and concrete paving a lot of
that kind of work. And that company grew not only
organically but through a lot of acquisitions across a number
(24:11):
of states. And there was a span of about ten
years from the early nineties to early two thousands where
they acquired eighty four kind of smaller companies and grew
its footprint across And when we got into probably the
you know, twenty tens, they then decided to kind of
(24:35):
instead of having all these little different names of every
company they acquired, which maintained their names. They kind of
folded everything in under the under the one umbrella as
Knife River Corporation and across many states from you know,
Minnesota and the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho. They you can see
these Knife River trucks that.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Are out there.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
They also had another business that was kind of or
out of the utility. It was called MDU Construction Services Group,
which did a lot of high voltage transmission lines, mechanical work,
fire suppression. Over the years, they did a lot of
work related around construction, and that company grew through acquisitions
(25:18):
as well, and to a kind of a peak period
of time, the company had about seventeen thousand employees across
forty five plus states with all these subsidiaries and business units.
But as a publicly held company, you know, a performance
for stockholders. Shareholders is important, and the kind of the
(25:43):
analysts were having trouble trying to figure out what the
company was all about, and so that's when they decided
to do the spinoffs, and Knife River was spun off
in twenty twenty three. They're their own publicly traded company today.
They're performing very well and in the Construction Services Group
(26:04):
had a name change to Everest and they spun off
just here about a month ago and they're performing well.
And the utility now is back to its roots from
one hundred years ago. So it's our utility companies and
WBI Energy, and you know, WBI Energy has been there
for many years, played a big role in the gas
(26:27):
production out of where we originated on the border. They
also own an underground natural gas storage facility, a natural
from a band in gas production over the years has
created this large underground storage and it's the largest one
in North America. And we also have power out there.
(26:50):
We serve communities, we have wind productions, so it's kind
of interesting today one hundred years later, the area where
we started is still very important to the company and
still has some you know, key components that run it today.
So with our utility group we start as Montana Dakota.
In the year two thousand, we acquired a small natural
(27:12):
gas company in Minnesota, Great Plains Natural Gas. In two
thousand and seven we acquired Cascade Natural Gas in Washington
and Oregon, and in two thousand and eight acquired Inner
Mountain Gas, which serves all of southern Idaho. So you know,
the company over eighty some years grew to about five
(27:33):
hundred thousand customers and in a matter of about a
fifteen month period more than doubled in size. Wow. And
so today, you know, with our utility company, we're across
eight states and we serve about one point two million
customers in about four hundred and fifty nine community. So
the business of serving customers at their homes and businesses,
(27:58):
you know, to the meter has really expanded. And that
that's kind of what we're back to today, is that
core energy services companies and serving you know, keeping your
the lights on and your house warm and and you're
cooking your food, and and the businesses from you know,
a local business downtown to industrial type business. You know,
(28:22):
it's uh, that's that's back to the core of where
we started and where we are today.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Well and as you said, you know, it helped the stockholders,
you know, to have a better handle on what this
company is doing. And if you've kind of got your
fingers in too many pies, you know, it's really hard
to say, Okay, what's your main focus. And it just
made perfect sense for these companies to spin off on
their own because they each had their own little niche
(28:50):
that they could take care of and you know, you
could get back to your roots again.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
So MDU Resources Group certainly has a interesting history made
possible by the thousands of employees over the past one
hundred years. So let's kind of take a break from
the topic of history and maybe look forward to the
next one hundred years and what are going to be
the big challenges for the organization and are there any
(29:17):
new projects on the horizon for him? Do you sure?
Speaker 4 (29:21):
So as we we move into the next one hundred years,
there's a there's a main theme that started back from
our founder RM. Haskett, who talked about, you know, when
communities thrive, the company thrives, and so being a part
of the community is important to us. And you know,
we have a foundation that started in nineteen eighty three
(29:42):
and has provided grants to different organizations and programs over
that timeframe and has invested forty five million dollars in
a number of communities and states where we do service.
And we'll continue to have that kind kind of involvement
in the communities we serve because it is important, you know,
(30:05):
to you know, a very strong community means a strong
utility company as well. So that's important to us, and
so there will still be growth. You know, Bismarck, other
communities we serve are growing, and so we need to
do that investment in natural gas, infrastructure and electric to
(30:26):
keep that, you know, the services to them. We look
at growth in terms of do we need more electric
generation and so there's those kind of projects that we've
been doing for many years that we will continue to do.
And there's also kind of the changing of times, and
so we we look across our states of also doing
(30:50):
more with renewable natural gas, which can be We have
a processing plan at the Billings Regional Landfill in Montana,
for example, where you're you know, garbage and a landfill
naturally creates methane and we, you know, can we draw
that out, process it and it goes into our pipelines
to serve our customers. And so things like that are
(31:13):
evolving within our company all the time. You know what
people maybe you're hearing a lot more of now are
data centers, so you know, they're they consume a lot
of power and you know, kind of started out with
crypto mining and the cryptocurrency and now with artificial intelligence
and that kind of computing that's becoming more common. You know,
(31:36):
we're serving a customer in Ellendale and North Dakota that
uses quite a bit of power for that data mining,
and we're very fortunate that area is has more power
than can move out of the area because it's kind
of constrained with the transmission lines there are already loaded.
(31:58):
So it's a very affordable place for UH Data Center
to locate because they can get affordable power, there's infrastructure
to get it there, and it doesn't impact negatively the
other customers. So that's another thing that will just continue
to grow across our privacy service area and all our states.
(32:23):
And then we also you know, need to build transmission
lines to to move power as well, and we've partnered
with Outer Tail Power Company out of Minnesota to do
a transmission line between Jamestown and Ellendale, North Dakota. That's
part of the grid we that we're a part of,
and that's just to you know, keep the power moving,
(32:46):
you know, kind of our model from day one. You know,
it's safe, reliable, and asffordable as we can make it
for customers.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
And suspensability and and renewable are all pretty much as
words these days. People are always concerned with that I
know they do cable lines underground. I don't imagine electrical
lines could be underground as well, because I think of
all the poles and the landscape and the wires or
(33:16):
is that not something that's feasible with that type of transmission.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
So the smaller lines you can, and we do, like
within the community, if you look at any new development
in Bismarck, there you don't see any power lines above
everything is buried. Very large transmission lines are. It's really
a lot more expensive to bury those underground. You can,
but it's almost ten times the cost. A lot of
(33:43):
it is because it needs cooling equipment.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Because there's that a little zun question.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
But a lot of times those large transmission lines are
out in the kind of the rural areas, so I
know it's there's still landowners that you work with, so
you're you're not impeding on say farm work or you
know their property. But it's not where it's in where
you're trying to run it across like a large community
(34:09):
or something. So it's more often than not, the larger
transmission minds will be above ground.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Okay. Interesting Well, MD Resources certainly has had an interesting
history made possible as I said, by all the employees,
and you've addressed some of the big challenges for the
organization and any new in the new projects that are
on the horizon, And basically I think your theme is
(34:38):
is to be responsive to the needs of that area
and to the needs of the community, and be a
part of the community and include people and talks on
the things that are really going to impact. So in closing,
thank you Stephanie and Mark for sharing the history of
MDU at our audience. And is there anything else that
(35:00):
you kind of want to touch on that we really
didn't have a spot to plug it into.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Well that with this being our one hundredth year, we've
tried to embrace that and celebrate it internally with our
employees and you know, externally where we can with the
communities we serve and so. On our MDU resources website
mdu dot com, there's a link right at the top
of the page called the one hundredth Anniversary and that
(35:28):
page contains a lot of information about the company's history.
We have a video that kind of highlights from day
one to current time of kind of looking at that
one hundred years talks has a lot of links to
news coverage and different events we've been a part on.
So it's it's a good place to kind of take
(35:49):
a look back at the company and kind of some
of the things we've done this year and and kind
of previews. I guess we're what we hope to continue
the next one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And you've pretty much answered because the next thing I
was going to mention is if people wanted to find
out more information about MDU Resources Group, where can they go?
And the website would MDU? I believe it's MDU dot com.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Correct, And from there you can also link out to
each of our utility companies and other information. But we
also have a good page highlighting you know, what we
are excited about is celebrating one hundred years of serving
Bizmarck and a number of our states.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
And I'm sure there wouldn't be issues if they would
want to reach out. Since you're the archivist, you know,
you might be able to answer some questions too if
they're looking for certain things. Sure, lady, I know the
physical history. Yes, I have lots simes. Absolutely well. Again,
(36:51):
thank you Stephanie and Mark for sharing the history with
us today. It's been very interesting and I've learned a
few things that I wasn't aware of, So we really
appreciate the time that you've taken to come and join
us today for History Hot Dish. Thank you, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Thank you for listening to History Hot Dish if you
like what you heard. The Bismark Historical Society hosts programs
and events throughout the year. We welcome all those with
an interest in local history to join us. For more
information about programs or membership, visit our website Bismarkhistory dot
org or find us on Facebook. You can find History
Hot Dish on one o two point five FM, Radioaccess
(37:30):
dot org, and anywhere you find great podcasts. History Hot
Dish is produced by the Bismark Historical Society in partnership
with Dakota Media Access
Welcome to History Hot Dish, a casual conversation about the
historic people and events that give Bismarket's unique flavor. History
Hot Dish is brought to you by the Bismarck Historical Society,
a local nonprofit whose mission is to learn, preserve, and
promote the history of Bismarck. Sit back, turn up the
volume and enjoy another helping of History Hot Dish.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome to another episode of History Hot Dish. I'm your host,
Kate Waldera, a member of the Bismarck Historical Society's Board
of Directors. You're listening to part two of a two
part episode of History Hot Dish. Our returning guests are
Mark Hanson, the senior public relations representative, and Stephanie Baalser,
(00:44):
the supervisor of Record Information with MDU Resources Group. And
today we're going to continue talking about the history of
MDU Resources Group, celebrating their one hundredth anniversary this year.
One really interesting service that you that the company had
(01:04):
was the home service department and appliance sales. And in
the first episode we talked about the early days, and
with this episode, we want to focus on things that
our audience may remember from the more recent years. Like
many communities, Bizmarck had a growth spurt in the fifties
and sixties, and MDU certainly has kept up with the
(01:27):
demand for housing and businesses. So share with us some
of the ways that MDU kept up with the trends
and the needs of the residents, and then maybe some
of the events, you know that our audience may remember
from recent years.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So the Home Service Department, it started very early in
the company. I haven't been able to figure out exactly
when it started, but they were kind of the frontline
for understanding what the customers were looking for, what they needed,
(02:04):
because they often went out into the community to just
work with people and work with them on their appliances
and increase you know, natural gas usage. So they apparently
(02:25):
in all of all of the publications they called them girls,
so you know, that was the dated reference for them.
But they all had to have a college degree of
some kind of home economics. They often did TV spots.
They went out into people's homes actually and help them
(02:49):
understand how to use everything from their stove to their refrigerator,
you know, all of the major appliances, how to clean them,
how to service them, and then and do you sold
appliances and then they also serviced them, so it was
kind of this round robin of service for people. And
(03:12):
they also sent out videos and film strips to schools.
They went out and did presentations at schools.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
And.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
We had a lot of the videos and film strips
still and I just started going through a lot of
a bunch of those, and they're kind of entertaining some
of the names because it was, you know, how to
use your microwave or how to use your your stove.
And we also have a lot of photographs of the
time too, because they would do in Minneapolis. There was
(03:48):
a production company that they worked with and so they
would they would actually make the videos that they sent
out to people, and in nineteen fifty eight operated twenty
three electrical appliance stores. And you watch it over time
and you kind of you see the trends that MD
(04:10):
was was staying with. You know, it kind of went
from gas appliances in the thirties, I mean like gas
refrigerators even and.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I never knew there could be a gas run refrigerator.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, gas refrigerators, and then it, you know, electric started
taking more hold over things. And even at one point
there was compressed natural gas for vehicles. I found some
photos of some grand openings at some some filling stations
(04:47):
for compressed national Yes, so these were.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Full blown vehicles. They weren't, you know, like yard equipment
or anything.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
No vehicles. Yeah, I'm not sure what all happened with
that whole thing, but didn't take and didn't last very long,
but it was I think it was in the seventies
and eighties. It kind of was rolling trend and then
it just didn't go very far.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Yeah, we had the refail stations, you know, located where
we served kind of larger customer basis. So there was
one in Bismarck and in Dickinson, and I know there
was one in Billings and probably I'm gonna guess one
in Glendever Miles City in between that for refilling and
and the other idea was some other there. There was
(05:35):
a large company that built buses and as they and
they were natural gas buses, so they would fill at
our stations, making it from wherever they were you know, manufactured,
to where their endpoint was. But over time and towards
the end, they just weren't being used and parts were
(05:56):
hard to find because it was an older system, and
so they kind of just closed all that down and
didn't offer to sell it anymore or use it in
our vehicles.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So I would imagine that that whole thing could have
been pretty cumbersome because I'm not sure what the tank
would have looked like on a vehicle like that, and
to have any quantity of gas to keep the vehicle running.
It's kind of now the conundrum that some people with
their electric vehicles had as finding the charging stations. So
this was kind of a precursor to that, except it
(06:27):
was natural gas. Now that is intriguing. I did not
realize that that is very very interesting, to say the least.
Then as far as like the home office excuse me,
the home service departments that you had, there was a
(06:48):
TV show that had been out there I think in
the mid mid fifties before the Food Network, and that
can you speak to that a little bit, not too much.
Mostly we have photos of it, and they they did
(07:10):
do they did make up some scripts too. We do
have some of the scripts that they used for those videos.
And I don't know if it was a regular segment
or not, or but I think it was on KFYR. Yeah,
it was Kate higher and it was according to the
notes here, it says Monday nights and it was a
missus Florence Pierce that was the star of the show.
(07:36):
And they said that she was just a natural in
front of the camera, you know, she went without a script.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
And yeah, it seemed that a lot of these ladies
were quite good at presenting and just having a good
rapport with people. They just they and all of the
photos they have, I mean they have an insane amount
of fat and everything is described so it's beautiful. And
(08:05):
they they really, they really got out there. I think
they were probably the frontline of the customer service for
the company.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And then any other interaction went from there. Well that
made sense. You know, homes were being set up and
people were buying these appliances, and they wanted to learn
how to use them effectively and all the good help
that they got from MDU and how to use them,
how to take care of them, and even how to
do the cooking on them, you know, and prepare meals,
(08:38):
and that that would have been something that I think
they would have really enjoyed in that particular time period.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I think so too. And I think you know, they
the fact that they went out and they did these
kinds of things too. I think help obviously helped us
and to the company, because if people know how to
use their appliance is they're likely not going to you know,
wreck them. And then there's less service calls and you know,
(09:06):
something can be solved simply by just having one of
the home service people go out there and say, oh, hey,
no you didn't turn this button on or something.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well, and that just makes it, you know, like you said,
it was the front lines, and it got people really
enthusiastic and feeling good, you know about the company. They
set the tone, you know, and they hit people where
they really needed, you know, in the fields. You know,
they got them where the need was. So that was
very That was just extremely interesting to read about as well.
(09:40):
And then in the sixties there was a lot of
changes in our community as well. Downtown was the center
of shopping and entertainment, Dakota Zoo began welcoming families and friends,
and then the grimsrud Re Elementary opened its doors in
the mid sixties. So a change for him do you
took place in Octo over of nineteen sixty six with
(10:02):
the steam to gas conversion project can you share with
us how that all came about and how that was
accomplished and how many businesses were affected with that.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
So as we mentioned, as I mentioned in episode one,
there was the Bismarck Power Plant and that was on
the corner of Third and Front, and that supplied the
steam heating for the city. In nineteen sixty four, and
do you had to increase the rates for steam heat
(10:36):
because it was getting to be so expensive to operate
that plant, and it had been the first time since
nineteen forty eight, and so people were kind of cranky
about it. So I think and do you really started
looking at what's our next step? How do we, you know,
move this war. Because Bismarck was also one of the
(10:57):
last places to be converted because Mannon had been converted
in nineteen fifty three. So we had to go to
the Public Service Commission and we got authorized to abandoned
that steam system and convert to gas. And at that
time that conversion was the biggest that MDU had ever undertook,
(11:21):
and they basically had to rebuild the distribution system in
downtown in downtown to furnish the gas and the about
ninety three steam customers were converted from steam heat to
gas heat. And it took place in the time span
of from May to October. So they were basically digging
(11:44):
up all of downtown. And they had I think a crew,
a permanent crew of fifteen and then they had like
temporary help of another ten guys, and so it sounded
like it was kind of a revolting door project. They
kind of had to be on the ground to see
(12:04):
what was happening because they would come up with, you know,
weird situations would happen because you're working in narrow alleys
and you're going down major streets downtown. And at the
time that they completed it, they had to remove twelve
four hundred linear square feet of concrete and they laid
(12:28):
down a total of ten thousand and eighty feet of
pipe and two hundred and thirty five feet of casing
that was installed. So it was a big undertaking. And
then then that's when they decommissioned the Bismarck power Plant
in nineteen sixty seven, when they finished that project, and
then the power plant wasn't torn down until nineteen eighty seven, okay,
(12:52):
And they had been trying to find a buyer and
try to repurpose the building because I think it was
built around nineteen oh six, but it was too too
much money to rehab the building, and so they ended
up just tearing it down. And then they also it
was kind of interesting they before they tore it down,
they had supposedly the whistle from the Far West Oh
(13:16):
that they sounded before they they did it. Some people
aren't convinced it was the actual Far West whistle, but
they use that to bring the power plant down.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Okay. Interesting just how everything evolves, you know, and that
steamed gas conversion. To have them get it done in
that short of time, that was pretty monumental. It was.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
It was a big, big project. We had a lot
of information about it, excellent. Well, now many of our
listeners know that the building on the corner of North
Forth and East Ross Or they know that building as
the MDU building, and there's dozens of employees that work there.
And I know you've got some interesting tidbits about the
(14:06):
building from the Mandakonian newsletters that MD produced in the
fifties and sixties. Can you share some of the interesting facts.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And I really want to hear about super garbage gobblers.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, that's kind of an interesting though. We'll say that
for the end the finale. So the move was announced
in December of nineteen sixty six. It was a big
deal because from nineteen twenty four to that timeframe it
had been located in Minneapolis, and they were going to
(14:44):
relocate about seventy general office employees to Bismarck, and they
bought basically that whole east half of the block. They
bought the Elks building in nineteen sixty six to kind
of house employees until the new building was completed, and
(15:08):
they had an open house, and it was a big
deal and they started construction and the architects were the
Ritterbrush Brothers. Okay, well known form downs. Yep, we still
have the model that they constructed of the building and
(15:30):
the building itself. They wanted to make it kind of
a modern office building, and so they were trying to
incorporate a lot of modern ideas and I think I
think they were. They were good on the surface, but
I don't think they lasted very long. One of them
was they had heated sidewalks for a time. I don't
(15:52):
know how long that lasted. They're definitely not heated now.
And then they had, uh, they had a groundbreaking in
nineteen sixty seven and Governor William Guy was there and
(16:12):
they were very he was very excited about the relocation
because it was, you know, a big company coming into town.
And that also, I think created some friction with the
local business community. I've heard from older employees that the
(16:33):
local commerce community wasn't overly welcoming to the company when
we first came. And I think it was just a
matter of probably you know, people thinking that it was oh,
these big time Minneapolis people are coming here and they're
thinking they're going to take over or something.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
So yeah, everybody just had to find their niche and
learn what each other was about, right, Yeah, So I
think there was there was a little bit of friction.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
But.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
They really they went above and beyond to try and
make it modern, and they they did heating, air conditioning,
and humidity control with a combination of both gas and
electrical and their lighting system apparently was the first of
(17:27):
its kind and Bismarck and it will and I don't
know exactly what this means, but they said it will
provide all the heat needed until the temperature falls below freezing.
So the lighting system was apparently providing ambient heat I'm
not entirely sure. And then you know, and now that's
(17:49):
kind of what I got from reading that as well. Yeah,
it was. It was interesting, and of course they wanted
to make the electoral system one of the most modern
and efficient in the Midwest. And the cost for the
building was about one point seventy five million dollars when
it was completed, and it's five stories. And then they
(18:13):
also put a patio on the roof, which sounds good
in theory, but we're dealing with North yes, exactly, we're
dealing with North Dakota. And I've heard conflicting stories as
to why it didn't last very long. And some of
it was apparently some of the patio furniture would get
blown off the top that could be dangerous. They yeah,
(18:36):
so safety violations. And it was also I think up
on a raised platform, and I think the platform just
started to decay at some point.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
So it's drive by an avalanche or come through. Not
real good, not good.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
For pr No, So they they that patio is no
longer in service, but it's still on the model, so
that's kind of cool. And then they had special effects
lighting to illuminate the building's exterior and they also had
a ground floor display area and the walkway was going
(19:14):
to be lighted that night. And then later on they
also put a museum in the lobby, and they spent
a lot of time and a lot of effort to
make this museum. So they had like a full fledged
display down there and people to come in and look
at it. And then when they tore it down, they
put it in boxes for twenty years.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So the museum is no longer there.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
No, it's no longer there, but we have all the stuff,
so okay, it's just in my area. Now you get
to take care of Yeah, I get to take care
of it. And then okay, So the super Garbage Grobbler
it was a waste removal system and it was supposed
to have like a garbage shoot and you could put
(20:00):
things like paper, plastic bottles, cans, food milk carts, like
the whole nine yards down the chute and then it
would go into a pulper which would chew it all up,
and then all of that would be pumped into a
water press and then after the water squeezed out, it
(20:23):
would get discharged into a waste container. And I'm really
curious as too if they had somebody to come and
service that it was a special service, and their whole
thing was it was supposed to eliminate the problems of
air pollution and fly ash, so I think they were
(20:44):
talking about burning or stuff before or something. So yeah,
there was trash, choots and all kinds of things. And
I don't know how long this lasted. I don't think
it lasted very long because I talked to my former
boss and she started in the early eighties and she
says she does not remember such a thing.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
So it sounds like it was a unique toy for
a while. And then again it probably went the way
of the natural gas vehicles.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Well I can't imagine that. I mean, as with everything,
people don't always pay attention to the direction, so I
can only imagine that there was probably food stuff stuck
on the shoots on the way down to the to the.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Whoever would have to cleaning it would not be a
fun job.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I think the maintenance on it probably is what killed it.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So yeah, but it's got a cool name, super garbage Gobbler.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I don't know really am up with that one, but
that's pretty well.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It certainly did gobble the garbage, whether it was efficient
or not as a whole other game. Well, a reminder
for our guests that have just joined us. You're listening
to History Hot Dish on Radio Access one oh two
point five FM. I'm your host, Kate Waldera, and today
our guests are Mark Hanson and Stephanie Balzer with the
(22:09):
MDU Resources Group, and you're listening to part two of
a two part episode of History Hot Dish where we're
celebrating one hundred years of service by Montana Dakota Utilities.
Now we're going to move off into diversification because, as
we have alluded to in the previous episode, there were
(22:30):
a lot of subsidiaries and spin offs and partner organizations
within the Resources Group. Let's talk about some of the
larger organizations and how they became a part of the
group and what services the listeners might recognize.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Sure, as we talked a little bit about Stephanie did
in part one where the company got into coal mining
and oil and gas exploration, and that was back in
the mid thirties to mid forties. The coal mining lasted
quite a while. The oil and gas exploration we kind
of had some starts and stops depending on you know,
(23:09):
pricing and everything, and it wasn't a huge part of
the business then, but as it grew through just natural
natural gas and electric growth, we got to a point
where the Corporation of just Montana Dakota I talked about
expanding into some different areas and so they created a
(23:30):
corporate umbrella which is MDU Resources Group, and that was
created in nineteen eighty five. And around that time they
also transitioned the coal mining into aggregate mining. So they
took the expertise they had to mine coal and then
turn that into mining aggregates and Knife River Materials, and
(23:51):
Knife River Corporation was created, moving away from coal mining
and getting into aggregates and concrete paving a lot of
that kind of work. And that company grew not only
organically but through a lot of acquisitions across a number
(24:11):
of states. And there was a span of about ten
years from the early nineties to early two thousands where
they acquired eighty four kind of smaller companies and grew
its footprint across And when we got into probably the
you know, twenty tens, they then decided to kind of
(24:35):
instead of having all these little different names of every
company they acquired, which maintained their names. They kind of
folded everything in under the under the one umbrella as
Knife River Corporation and across many states from you know,
Minnesota and the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho. They you can see
these Knife River trucks that.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Are out there.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
They also had another business that was kind of or
out of the utility. It was called MDU Construction Services Group,
which did a lot of high voltage transmission lines, mechanical work,
fire suppression. Over the years, they did a lot of
work related around construction, and that company grew through acquisitions
(25:18):
as well, and to a kind of a peak period
of time, the company had about seventeen thousand employees across
forty five plus states with all these subsidiaries and business units.
But as a publicly held company, you know, a performance
for stockholders. Shareholders is important, and the kind of the
(25:43):
analysts were having trouble trying to figure out what the
company was all about, and so that's when they decided
to do the spinoffs, and Knife River was spun off
in twenty twenty three. They're their own publicly traded company today.
They're performing very well and in the Construction Services Group
(26:04):
had a name change to Everest and they spun off
just here about a month ago and they're performing well.
And the utility now is back to its roots from
one hundred years ago. So it's our utility companies and
WBI Energy, and you know, WBI Energy has been there
for many years, played a big role in the gas
(26:27):
production out of where we originated on the border. They
also own an underground natural gas storage facility, a natural
from a band in gas production over the years has
created this large underground storage and it's the largest one
in North America. And we also have power out there.
(26:50):
We serve communities, we have wind productions, so it's kind
of interesting today one hundred years later, the area where
we started is still very important to the company and
still has some you know, key components that run it today.
So with our utility group we start as Montana Dakota.
In the year two thousand, we acquired a small natural
(27:12):
gas company in Minnesota, Great Plains Natural Gas. In two
thousand and seven we acquired Cascade Natural Gas in Washington
and Oregon, and in two thousand and eight acquired Inner
Mountain Gas, which serves all of southern Idaho. So you know,
the company over eighty some years grew to about five
(27:33):
hundred thousand customers and in a matter of about a
fifteen month period more than doubled in size. Wow. And
so today, you know, with our utility company, we're across
eight states and we serve about one point two million
customers in about four hundred and fifty nine community. So
the business of serving customers at their homes and businesses,
(27:58):
you know, to the meter has really expanded. And that
that's kind of what we're back to today, is that
core energy services companies and serving you know, keeping your
the lights on and your house warm and and you're
cooking your food, and and the businesses from you know,
a local business downtown to industrial type business. You know,
(28:22):
it's uh, that's that's back to the core of where
we started and where we are today.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Well and as you said, you know, it helped the stockholders,
you know, to have a better handle on what this
company is doing. And if you've kind of got your
fingers in too many pies, you know, it's really hard
to say, Okay, what's your main focus. And it just
made perfect sense for these companies to spin off on
their own because they each had their own little niche
(28:50):
that they could take care of and you know, you
could get back to your roots again.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
So MDU Resources Group certainly has a interesting history made
possible by the thousands of employees over the past one
hundred years. So let's kind of take a break from
the topic of history and maybe look forward to the
next one hundred years and what are going to be
the big challenges for the organization and are there any
(29:17):
new projects on the horizon for him? Do you sure?
Speaker 4 (29:21):
So as we we move into the next one hundred years,
there's a there's a main theme that started back from
our founder RM. Haskett, who talked about, you know, when
communities thrive, the company thrives, and so being a part
of the community is important to us. And you know,
we have a foundation that started in nineteen eighty three
(29:42):
and has provided grants to different organizations and programs over
that timeframe and has invested forty five million dollars in
a number of communities and states where we do service.
And we'll continue to have that kind kind of involvement
in the communities we serve because it is important, you know,
(30:05):
to you know, a very strong community means a strong
utility company as well. So that's important to us, and
so there will still be growth. You know, Bismarck, other
communities we serve are growing, and so we need to
do that investment in natural gas, infrastructure and electric to
(30:26):
keep that, you know, the services to them. We look
at growth in terms of do we need more electric
generation and so there's those kind of projects that we've
been doing for many years that we will continue to do.
And there's also kind of the changing of times, and
so we we look across our states of also doing
(30:50):
more with renewable natural gas, which can be We have
a processing plan at the Billings Regional Landfill in Montana,
for example, where you're you know, garbage and a landfill
naturally creates methane and we, you know, can we draw
that out, process it and it goes into our pipelines
to serve our customers. And so things like that are
(31:13):
evolving within our company all the time. You know what
people maybe you're hearing a lot more of now are
data centers, so you know, they're they consume a lot
of power and you know, kind of started out with
crypto mining and the cryptocurrency and now with artificial intelligence
and that kind of computing that's becoming more common. You know,
(31:36):
we're serving a customer in Ellendale and North Dakota that
uses quite a bit of power for that data mining,
and we're very fortunate that area is has more power
than can move out of the area because it's kind
of constrained with the transmission lines there are already loaded.
(31:58):
So it's a very affordable place for UH Data Center
to locate because they can get affordable power, there's infrastructure
to get it there, and it doesn't impact negatively the
other customers. So that's another thing that will just continue
to grow across our privacy service area and all our states.
(32:23):
And then we also you know, need to build transmission
lines to to move power as well, and we've partnered
with Outer Tail Power Company out of Minnesota to do
a transmission line between Jamestown and Ellendale, North Dakota. That's
part of the grid we that we're a part of,
and that's just to you know, keep the power moving,
(32:46):
you know, kind of our model from day one. You know,
it's safe, reliable, and asffordable as we can make it
for customers.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
And suspensability and and renewable are all pretty much as
words these days. People are always concerned with that I
know they do cable lines underground. I don't imagine electrical
lines could be underground as well, because I think of
all the poles and the landscape and the wires or
(33:16):
is that not something that's feasible with that type of transmission.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
So the smaller lines you can, and we do, like
within the community, if you look at any new development
in Bismarck, there you don't see any power lines above
everything is buried. Very large transmission lines are. It's really
a lot more expensive to bury those underground. You can,
but it's almost ten times the cost. A lot of
(33:43):
it is because it needs cooling equipment.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Because there's that a little zun question.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
But a lot of times those large transmission lines are
out in the kind of the rural areas, so I
know it's there's still landowners that you work with, so
you're you're not impeding on say farm work or you
know their property. But it's not where it's in where
you're trying to run it across like a large community
(34:09):
or something. So it's more often than not, the larger
transmission minds will be above ground.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Okay. Interesting Well, MD Resources certainly has had an interesting
history made possible as I said, by all the employees,
and you've addressed some of the big challenges for the
organization and any new in the new projects that are
on the horizon, And basically I think your theme is
(34:38):
is to be responsive to the needs of that area
and to the needs of the community, and be a
part of the community and include people and talks on
the things that are really going to impact. So in closing,
thank you Stephanie and Mark for sharing the history of
MDU at our audience. And is there anything else that
(35:00):
you kind of want to touch on that we really
didn't have a spot to plug it into.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Well that with this being our one hundredth year, we've
tried to embrace that and celebrate it internally with our
employees and you know, externally where we can with the
communities we serve and so. On our MDU resources website
mdu dot com, there's a link right at the top
of the page called the one hundredth Anniversary and that
(35:28):
page contains a lot of information about the company's history.
We have a video that kind of highlights from day
one to current time of kind of looking at that
one hundred years talks has a lot of links to
news coverage and different events we've been a part on.
So it's it's a good place to kind of take
(35:49):
a look back at the company and kind of some
of the things we've done this year and and kind
of previews. I guess we're what we hope to continue
the next one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And you've pretty much answered because the next thing I
was going to mention is if people wanted to find
out more information about MDU Resources Group, where can they go?
And the website would MDU? I believe it's MDU dot com.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Correct, And from there you can also link out to
each of our utility companies and other information. But we
also have a good page highlighting you know, what we
are excited about is celebrating one hundred years of serving
Bizmarck and a number of our states.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
And I'm sure there wouldn't be issues if they would
want to reach out. Since you're the archivist, you know,
you might be able to answer some questions too if
they're looking for certain things. Sure, lady, I know the
physical history. Yes, I have lots simes. Absolutely well. Again,
(36:51):
thank you Stephanie and Mark for sharing the history with
us today. It's been very interesting and I've learned a
few things that I wasn't aware of, So we really
appreciate the time that you've taken to come and join
us today for History Hot Dish. Thank you, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Thank you for listening to History Hot Dish if you
like what you heard. The Bismark Historical Society hosts programs
and events throughout the year. We welcome all those with
an interest in local history to join us. For more
information about programs or membership, visit our website Bismarkhistory dot
org or find us on Facebook. You can find History
Hot Dish on one o two point five FM, Radioaccess
(37:30):
dot org, and anywhere you find great podcasts. History Hot
Dish is produced by the Bismark Historical Society in partnership
with Dakota Media Access
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