North Dakota-born Chad Everson, owner of The Clay Empire raku pottery business in Minnesota, remembers North Dakota as a place where people take each other at face value.  He said the simple North Dakota way of life is a priceless inheritance.

“It’s funny how North Dakota sticks with me,” he said.  “It’s what I long to build and create around me, wherever I am.  It is all things good and honorable.” 

It’s been a busy year for Everson.  Besides working on the raku art form and teaching it to others, he founded the Grizzly Groundswell blog site, began work on an online conservative radio station, and seriously considered running for the Minnesota House of Representatives.  

Everson, who said Grizzly Groundswell is more about faith and conservative living than politics, said the timing for holding public office just wasn’t right.  He decided to take the road less traveled.  He pulled out of the race in order to concentrate on building an online network of conservative bloggers.   

“I found that it tied my hands too much just as my site was taking off, so I am stepping back and reinvesting my energy into the online empire I am creating.  A big decision for me was looking at the political landscape here in my backyard.  It is volatile and I knew I could affect it more as a blogger than as a candidate.” 

Pulling out of the political race to work on politics in a different way was a bold move that was rooted in North Dakota history. 

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Everson explained how his great-grandfather, E.W. Everson, immigrated from Norway, settled in North Dakota, and became involved in politics.  According to Chad Everson, E.W. Everson was responsible for initiating the Independent Voters Association, which successfully challenged the Non-Partisan League and stopped some seriously socialistic maneuvers.

Generations later, Chad Everson said E.W. Everson was his inspiration and motivation for creating the Grizzly Groundswell site.

“This new media, to me, is my great-grandfather’s North  Dakota,” he said.  “It’s the last frontier, the last chance to homestead.”

E.W. Everson’s courage to stand alone in the face of political heat helped Chad Everson with his own decisions, including how he wanted to run Grizzly Groundswell.  The blog site aims to have at least one conservative political blogger in every state.  The variety of people and perspectives is important.

“It’s like a good North Dakota quilt,” Everson explained.  “If it doesn’t have all the colors and textures, it wouldn’t be as beautiful.”

The ultimate goal of the Grizzly Groundswell site and Grizzly Groundswell Radio is to be able to oppose small socialistic changes that may spread from one state to another without much notice.

“You can really head things off before people get the political machines moving,” Everson said.  “If you see something in someone else’s back yard, you know it’s coming to yours.”

“I looked at all the online media,” he said.  “There’s a lot of talent and a lot of good things going on, but no one seems to be working together.  I’m hoping that one day we’ll be so strong and so visible that we’ll whisper and people will hear us.”

Meanwhile, Everson and his wife Michelle focus on creating a simple, peaceful way of life.  They call their home ‘Dream Fulfilled’ and surround it with animals, fruit trees, and a large garden. 

“I still live like prairie land demands, honest and joyfully,” Everson said.  “I bring my inviting North Dakota smile and eye contact to lands where passerbyers seldom glance in each other’s direction.  I still insist corruption and socialism is not how business in my backyard is done.”

Everson, a North Dakota ambassador, is currently writing a book about E.W. Everson.  He said the book will be called ‘Better Man than I:  The Greatest American Story Socialists Never Wanted You to Hear.’ 

“So far it is my story as well, looking back to my great-grandfather’s heroism and gift so that I would be the man God has intended me,” he said.