North Dakota may be empty by Charles Bowden's account, but he nearly filled an auditorium at Bismarck State College on Monday morning.

In January, Bowden's article "The Emptied Prairie" ran in National Geographic Magazine, depicting deserted rural communties in the state.

Many North Dakotans were offended because they felt it portrayed the state in a negative light.

"I think most people thought, 'the state is never mentioned in a national magazine and when it is, you picked this to talk about,'" Bowden said through puffs of cigarette smoke outside Schafer Hall.

"The comic thing for me is, I really like this place," he said.

Bowden never apologized for his article to the crowd of more than 150 who came to see him as the keynote speaker for the 2008 Alliance Summer Geography Institute.

Instead, he spent the majority of his lecture highlighting his home state's problems simliar to North Dakota's. Arizona, he said, has a severe drought problem and faces water rationing as well as other shortages of resources. He said both states lack the ability to sustain large populations and used up too many geologic resources.

"I'm making a simple point, folks, about where I live and where you live," he said. "We seem to mistake the present moment for the way things have been and will be."

Bowden said the whole nation suffers the fate of not considering geology in mining massive resources, and now that they've declined, must now return to geography for answers.

Larry Skogen, president of Bismarck State College, introduced Bowden and admitted to being from a farm town that no longer exists. He said Bowden's article showed two things.

"One, that North Dakotans read, and two, that we care passionately about our state," he said.

Bob Klemisch of the North Dakota Geographic Alliance said people need to remember that Bowden's article was not written just about North Dakota per se. He said it could just as easily been written about coal mining towns in Montana and Arizona.

Following the article's publication, Bowden said he got a lot of mail from North Dakota readers. He joked that they taught him NorthDakota has no problems.

"I have a gentle proposal; maybe you should rename the state Shangri-La,"he said, drawing laughs.

He said people should think about the low crime rates, the good schools and strong economy before getting defensive.

"How could you live here and think this is a failing state?" he said. "Get over it."

(Reach reporter Chris Rosacker at 250-8254 or chris.rosacker@bismarcktribune.com)