Carol Wilson

8/24/2009: In 1939, the people of North Dakota prepared to celebrate the state's Golden Jubilee, remembering North Dakota's 50 years of statehood from 1889 to 1939.

8/19/2009: On this date in 1874, reports of Lieutenant Colonel Custer’s Black Hills Expedition were pouring into Bismarck. The newspapers delighted in printing fantastic tales about what the explorers found in the Southern Dakota Territory.

8/18/2009: In August of 1932, the home of Dr. J.A. Prescott was filled with eager visitors who came to witness the demonstration of a revolutionary new machine. After more than ten years of experimentation, Dr. Prescott successfully completed a machine-operated placer mining device called a "gamco."

8/17/2009: On this date in 1947, the Grand Forks Herald reported that seventy-eight-year-old David C. Giles took his first driver's test to obtain an operating license for an electric-powered wheel chair.

8/11/2009: On this date in 1907, the Minot Daily Reporter printed a surprising story about a vicious attack on the Dogden stagecoach line, comparable to some of the worst incidents of road rage today.

8/10/2009: Sixty-four years ago, the federal government anticipated a great series of floods to occur over the next few decades-floods that threatened to sweep away thousands of years of North Dakota history. Only these floods were not natural disasters. They were a planned part of federal water resource development programs. In 1945, the federal government began planning the construction of a series of dams that would provide flood control, hydroelectric power, irrigation, and recreation.

8/4/2009: Many cities and towns of North Dakota have been named after celebrated figures that once inhabited the wild plains of the state. Yet oddly enough, North Dakota's own capitol bears the name of a European man who never once set foot in America's western frontier: Prince Otto von Bismarck.

8/3/2009: On this date in 1962, the Bismarck Tribune reported that Sitting Bull's remaining blood relatives gathered to remember their ancestor at his resting place in Fort Yates. And they were accompanied by a special guest of honor: Klas Gustafsson.

7/31/2009: During the economically difficult times of the Great Depression, the city of Chicago ambitiously staged the Century of Progress Exhibition in 1933 to celebrate the city's centennial.

7/15/2009: In the spring of 1928, North Dakota pilot, Harry W. Potter, made a triumphant return to the state’s capitol city after a visit to Montana to buy his own state-of-the art flying device: a Ryan airplane built by the same company that developed Charles Lindberg’s Spirit of St. Louis.