The close-knit community, which is about 58 miles northeast of Dickinson, has few businesses, and Four Corners Café is one that attracts many residents.
Everyone knows everyone in Fairfield and they usually spend time with people who live in the same circle, said Jesse Romanyshyn, owner of the cafe. Measures taken locally to prevent COVID-19 include reducing contact with others and social distance – aspects of life that many rural residents practiced long before the COVID-19 pandemic.
People are smart in the area, he said, and are already taking the necessary precautions to stay safe for COVID-19.
Slope and Billings counties, with a combined population of approximately 1,700 people, each reported zero COVID-19 deaths and a total of 83 positive cases in the 11 months that North Dakota endured the virus. Each North Dakota province has had at least one death due to the virus in a condition that has recorded more than 1,400 COVID-19 deaths and seen one of the worst outbreaks in the country in the fall.
For Romanyshyn, it can be frustrating when small rural towns, such as those in the provinces of Slope and Billings, are merged with the larger cities of North Dakota – because it is clear to him that the two are very different.
“It’s completely different here,” he said.
The Four Corners Café in Fairfield, ND, about 10 miles north of Interstate 94 on the busy U.S. Highway 85, has no customer vehicles in the parking lot during lunch on Tuesday, February 2nd. Craig Bihrle / Special for The Forum.
According to the Department of Health, Billings and Slope counties along with neighboring Golden Valley County in western North Dakota have not reported any active cases. Some rural counties also reported no COVID-19 deaths, including Montana’s Mineral County and Jones County in South Dakota.
Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in every state in the United States, with an obscure province in Hawaii as the last, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Sherry Adams, executive officer of the Southwestern District Health Unit – an organization that oversees the health response of eight western North Dakota provinces – is restricted.
‘A outbreak in western North Dakota looks very different than in larger cities, Adams said. If ten people tested positive, it would be considered a ‘major’ outbreak for the area, she said.
Because the communities are so small, it can easily affect the only gas station or collection point in the community. In this way, a virus outbreak could be more harmful to rural areas than metropolitan cities. One small town that is very much aware of this is Medora.
Medora, a cowboy-themed city that attracts tourists in the summer, was almost deserted in February. No parked cars lie along the streets in the city, and those who live or work in Medora nod politely to outsiders and no doubt wonder what they can bring to the city this time of year.
In a community that thrives on tourism, a pandemic is likely to drive away tourists. But this past summer, travelers through Medora stopped as if everything was normal, according to some city residents.
Because the summer of 2020 was successful, given the circumstances, business owners hope that this summer will attract people in the midst of the pandemic who are looking for some respite.
Medora’s community center also serves as the city hall. City Auditor Gary Ridenhower said business owners take the COVID-19 pandemic seriously because they do not want their businesses to go out of business or for Medora to become a hotspot for COVID-19. Craig Bihrle / Special for the Forum.
Last summer, Medora had weekly testing opportunities to monitor the spread of COVID-19. Although tourists from across the state and the country traveled to the small town, no employees in Medora tested positive until September, Adams said.
All the business owners in Medora do not want COVID-19 in the city, said Gary Ridenhower, the city’s auditor. Everyone knows that if COVID-19 does go to the city, their revenue will be lost, he said.
“Together we can achieve our ultimate goal, which is to get through with our businesses intact and our reputation intact,” Ridenhower said. “If that happens, it’s a big win.”
Since government Doug Burgum allowed the mandate for the entire mask to expire last month, masks have only been recommended in Medora.
Ridenhower said the way people think about the pandemic in Medora is different from the rest of the state, and people value their freedom and their right to do things as they see fit.
“It’s a different culture, and if more people could understand that it’s not about telling people what to do,” Ridenhower said, “it’s about ‘here’s what we do and why we do it. do it and how we “do it together again.”
Almost everyone in the city knows someone who contracted COVID-19 or even died from it, said Karen Schmeling, a Golden Valley County resident who works in Medora.
Billings County in southwestern North Dakota has less than a thousand permanent residents, based on recent estimates. However, it entertains tens of thousands of tourists annually to its headquarters in Medora, and also offers large oil traffic. It remains one of the two provinces in the country without the deaths of residents due to COVID-19. Craig Bihrle / Special for the Forum.
“It took a while before people took it seriously here, but I think a lot of them do it because it’s getting to where almost everyone knows someone who died from it,” Schmeling said.
One of the biggest differences between the COVID-19 response in rural areas compared to metropolitan areas is that quarantine can be more active in rural areas, and that farms can work on their property.
The downfall, however, is that people cannot take the virus as seriously because the communities are so small, Adams said.
“Because of real rural areas, people sometimes do not necessarily think it is in their community,” Adams said. “When that happens, it’s a little harder to encourage the test or to encourage people to continue to soften the things that are happening.”
Romanyshyn said he wishes people understood that rural areas are very different from cities and that they should not be merged in terms of COVID-19.
The Four Corners Café is open for personal meals again, and he said he hopes his business will continue during this pandemic, which unfortunately has closed many rural businesses.
Readers can contact reporter Michelle Griffith, a report for the U.S. Corps member, at [email protected].