This story was published some days ago, in The Williston Herald, but for some reason I never posted it.
Posted now.
Last year the North Dakota Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision in the Wilkinson’s disputed mineral rights case that the state no longer has any claim to any minerals under Lake Sakakawea that lie outside the historical Missouri River channel.
But it also sent the case back to the lower court in Williams County, to consider damages.
Judge Paul Jacobson did just that on Thursday and Friday, hearing testimony from Wilkinson family members about their struggle to regain minerals that official records show the family retained after Lake Sakakawea was flooded in 1958.
To catch up on the story, see the tag, "high water mark" or "riparian," although the latter was seldom used.
I considered this story the most egregious story to have come out of the Bakken up to that time, and I'm not aware of any story that is more egregious to this day. This was a "land grab" by the state, pure and simple; fortunately the court agreed.
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Whistle Register
Something to share with the oldest granddaughter who knows so much about music. I don't know if she knows about this, the whistle register.
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