Ann Erling

11/1/2008: Joe Albert flexed his muscles and flashed a smile as he used his might to pull a freight car down the tracks. This was only one of many feats the Syrian entertainer performed during his one man show. The crowd applauded this strong man, business man, and Syrian immigrant. In 1920, Joe was only one of 289 Syrian-born North Dakota residents. Compare that to the 38,190 Norwegian-born and 29,617 Russian-born North Dakota residents in 1920; as strong as he was, Joe was outnumbered.

6/9/2008: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s… Dewey Dorman?

1/13/2008: On this date in 1950,the Fargo Forum found it possible to fit what seemed like every emotion on a single page.

1/4/2008: She was called “A force to be reckoned with,” and found success on the world stage, but Alma Mehus hadn’t fallen far from the tree". On this date in 1934, the Dickinson Press reported the great success of one North Dakota woman’s musical career.

1/2/2008: In May of 1900, John Link bid farewell to his native home in Bohemia and set sail for America. Like many immigrants before him, John settled temporarily in the east where he was able to find work in a textile factory in Massachusetts. After many years of working, John had saved enough money to send for his childhood sweetheart, Anna. In 1906, John and Anna Link traveled west where they homesteaded in McKenzie County, North Dakota near the town of Alexander. Who would have known that this hardworking Bohemian homesteader would raise a son who would go on to become a North Dakota governor?

12/25/2007: There are the twelve days of Christmas, the eight days of Hanukkah, and the seven days of Kwanzaa, but can you imagine twenty days of Christmas? Some wait all year for a single day of celebration with family and friends, but not too long ago some of North Dakota’s earliest setters were stretching Christmas to its limit. The traditional Norwegian Christmas is not one, but twenty days of celebration!

11/30/2007: While hitch hiking may not be the most popular form of transportation, it is not uncommon to see a lone traveler thumbing his way down one of America's highways. It is, however, rare to see a traveler attempting to bum a ride on an airport runway.

11/25/2007: Tourism is North Dakota's second largest industry, bringing an estimated 3.6 billion dollars into the state in 2005. But what did it take to bring such a quiet state to tourism fame?

11/18/2007: Fog hung heavy around Sheriff Hardie as he picked his way through the wreckage of the semi. The sun had set hours ago and he glanced nervously over his shoulder before switching on his flashlight. Hardie scanned the beam of light across the blacktop as his worst nightmares were realized. Alone, on Highway 2, Sheriff Hardie faced 25,000... pounds of cheese?

11/13/2007: Mary Louise Defender didn’t win the title of Miss Indian America by wearing the perfect bathing suit or a flashy evening gown. Instead, she competed against 75 other Native American women garbed in a buckskin dress, with matching buckskin leggings and moccasins, clothing traditional to her tribe. Not a single sequin was present at this beauty pageant.