We stood in Wayne Johnson’s kitchen gazing at a painting hung on the wall.

“I call it ‘The Ultimate Energy Harvest,’” he said. He was pacing back and forth, looking from the painting to the window and talking with his hands.

Wayne is the fourth generation of his family to farm in Stanley, N.D. He’s a community man who encourages investing in local businesses and infrastructure to keep the town alive. After talking for hours, we discovered he’s also a visionary who propagates a philosophy of adaptation, no matter what changes occur outside his control.

The painting in his kitchen captures his dream of erecting wind turbines, digging for oil and growing canola – an emerging biodiesel – on his farmland. He commissioned Andrew Knudson, a local artist, to create the piece of art as a constant reminder of his dream.

Driving through North Dakota, we noticed sporadic piles of rocks in fields. I mean huge rocks, not gravel. Wayne told us these are remnants of the first homesteaders who turned over the sod, removed the rocks and began raising crops.

“Every time I see a rock pile, it’s like a monument to their vision,” Wayne explained. “That picture is my rock pile.”

He said learning to adapt is crucial to living in a small town because it’s not like you can choose to shop at the other grocery store or go to the other church.

“You don’t like your priest? You can drive 60 miles that way to find another one,” he said.

His response isn’t to become passive. Wayne said the lack of options means small town residents have to be “as industrious or more” than city dwellers.

So whenever a new challenge presents itself, like the old church has aged beyond its usefulness or oil workers have infiltrated the town, Wayne talked about finding ways to make everything work. Just like in the painting, he aims for “harmonious success.”

Essence, North Dakota, Small towns, Stanley North Dakota Project