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Hall of Fame sets annual meeting/nominees picked

HALL OF FAME SETS ANNUAL MEETING/NOMINEES PICKED

The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame (NDCHF) will hold its eighth annual meeting and banquet at the Seven Seas in Mandan on Friday and Saturday, February 21 and 22. Activities begin Friday evening with a free social open to the public. Videos will be shown and refreshments provided.

Saturday, the Hall of Fame Annual membership meeting will begin at 1:00 p.m. with an update on progress on the $3-million project slated for construction in Medora. The Hall of Fame's 198 Trustees will meet at 2:30 p.m. to discuss 2003 nominees for the Hall of Honorees and fundraising activities.

Following the Trustee meeting, there will be a social hour/auction and banquet. Gerry Groenewold, a noted historian who heads the University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center, will be the featured banquet speaker. Groenewold has spent years identifying historic sites throughout the region and serves as president of the Frontier Heritage Alliance, a five-state organization based in Sheridan, Wyoming. The group's goal is the research, preservation, interpretation, and promotion of historic sites. NDCHF Executive Director Darrell Dorgan calls Groenewold, "a walking history book. Besides accomplishing museum-quality restoration of wagons and other items, he is an impressive researcher who has worked hard at documenting historic sites, artifacts and stories that tell the story of the western plains horse culture."

More than 40 individuals and events have been nominated for induction into the Hall of Fame for 2003. The nominations will be reviewed and Trustees will select nine new inductees from 18 names that will appear on the ballot for induction this year. Categories from which nominees will be selected in 2003 include pre-1940 ranching; modern-era Ranching; a ranch; pre-1940 rodeo; modern-era rodeo; rodeo producer; and special events. Once selected by secret ballot, the nine will join the more than 50 others picked in previous years.

Ballots will go to the Trustees in May, and the names of those selected for induction will be announced in July. The annual induction ceremony in Medora will be held on August 2. The inductees will be the featured in the Hall of Honorees, the centerpiece of the Hall of Fame in Medora.

More than $2 million has been committed for the project, and plans call for construction to begin as soon as additional financial commitments are received. Dorgan says, "The architect has finished his work, a Wisconsin exhibit firm is working on an interior design, and the project is ready to bid. The only thing holding up work is the last financial commitments."

Tickets and rooms for the Hall of Fame meeting can be reserved by calling the Seven Seas in Mandan at 701-663-7401. Special room rates are available for Hall of Fame members.

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