Dakota Fancy

Florida family gives up on small-town North Dakota
AP

HAZELTON, N.D. – A tiny North Dakota town's promise of cash and free land lured only one family from out of state. Now, Michael and Jeanette Tristani and their 12-year-old twins are trying to move from the town without a traffic light back to Miami.

Tired of crime, traffic, hurricanes and the high cost of living in Florida, the Tristanis moved four years ago to Hazelton, a dwindling town of about 240 that has attempted to attract young families to stay on the map.

Michael Tristani, 42, said at the time the 1,800-mile move was "an answer to our prayers."

"We don't have to look over our shoulder to see who's going to rob us, or jump out of the bushes to attack us," Tristani said. "Taxes are low, the cost of living is low and the kids enjoy school."

But the family also found a cliquey community that treated them like outsiders. "For my wife, it's been a culture shock," he said.

Rural communities across the Great Plains, fighting a decades-long population decline, are trying a variety of ways to attract outsiders. But the Tristanis show how the efforts can fail even at a time when many people are desperate.

"It's been quite an experience, 50-50 at best," Tristani said. "It hasn't been easy. No one really wants new people here."

The Hazelton Development Corp., formed by a determined group of citizens, began running ads in 2005 offering families up to two free lots and up to $20,000 toward home purchases. Businesses were offered free lots and up to $50,000 for setting up shop in the town.

Besides cash and free land, Hazelton had little else to offer except elbow room. Surrounded by flat farm land and livestock, the century-old town boasts three churches, a bank, a grain elevator and a bar.

Like many small towns across rural America, the once thriving farming community began shrinking as residents moved on or passed away.

Tom Weiser, one of the city leaders behind the project to lure new residents, said Hazelton had hundreds of inquiries from around the world when the community's proposal made headlines across the country. Several families from other states visited the town but only the Tristanis made the commitment to move.

"Not everybody fits in in a small town," said Weiser, who works as a baker at Wal-Mart in Bismarck, about 45 miles away.

Hay bales, a gas station and a graveyard greet visitors as they roll into Hazelton off the state highway.

Michael Tristani came from his native Florida wearing gold necklaces and a Rolex and driving a Lexus. He proved as foreign as a flamingo in a place where pickups, farm caps and flannel shirts are de rigueur.

"People thought I was a drug dealer," he said.

Tristani said he was prepared for Hazelton's bitter winters — when wind chills can reach 50-degrees below zero and snow drifts are measured in feet — but not the small-town drama.

"People prejudge you without getting to know you," Jeanette Tristani said.

If you ask me the Tristani's are just a family of quitters. I'd expect that from some Florida softies. But if the folks in North Dakota want a real challenge then they can bring in a West Texas man. I offer myself up as the next guinea pig in this Hazleton, North Dakota stimulus project. Now I'm not coming in with the established capital of the Tristanis so I'm going to need a free house and a bar to run. But I'm Masters educated so I fully expect to be the most intelligent person in town and will soon have you all eating out of my hands.

Don't like my attitude? Then don't be afraid to drive by my house and yell obscenities. I'm not easily rattled. I'll be outside drinking in a lawn chair and urinating in the street. So I'm throwing do the gauntlet to you Hazelton. Got the guts to take me on? Or are you chicken?