Plains Folk

The Archives

Plains Folk, a commentary devoted to life on the great plains of North America, is now a special weekly feature on Hear It Now. Written by Tom Isern of West Fargo, North Dakota, and read in newspapers across the region for years, Plains Folk venerates fall suppers and barn dances and reminds us that “more important to our thoughts than lines on a map are the essential characteristics of the region–the things that tell what the plains are, not just where they are.” You can hear Plains Folk once a week during Hear It Now, weekdays at 3 pm CT with a repeat at 7 pm CT.

To read more Plains Folk commentaries, click on the “archives” link.

Recent Shows

Shooting Wells

These days we hear a great deal about the hazards of hydraulic fracturing in the oil patch. Let me tell you a story about hazardous drilling operations. One day in March of 1916, a teamster named Harry Hill was nearing the end of a fifty-mile journey to a point in the countryside near Cleveland, [...]
Oilfield Trash

The petroleum industry is transforming the landscape, again, up and down the Great Plains. I say “again” because this is hardly a new thing. On the southern plains, where the Mississippi Lime shale play is heating up, and on the central plains, where the Niobrara shale play is a bit more established now, the processes [...]
Stories You Haven’t Heard Before

Sometimes I admire single-minded people capable of sustained focus. They seem to accomplish a lot by sticking to an agenda, methodically ticking things off. I do admire these people. And I hate them. Maybe hate is too strong a word. Maybe not. For the rest of us, there is another way of bumbling our way [...]
No New Story

On the level of our house that is devoted to office and library, I keep a great bison-leather chair angled toward the fireplace. This is my reading chair. And sometimes a napping chair, but those two often are seamless. Because really, what I’m talking about is a place of comfort. Sometimes in the bison chair [...]
Thinking About the Dakota War

Last year the state of Minnesota convened observances in remembrance of the Dakota War of 1862. The Minnesota Historical Society opened a new exhibit devoted to the subject. To hear people there talk, the war concluded that same year of 1862, with the execution of Dakota prisoners providing the end punctuation to a bloody and [...]