Christina Sunwall

11/3/2009: Horse thieves and hangings...Dakota Territory certainly could be a rough place at times.

9/23/2009: When the train pulled up to Medora hours before dawn in early September of 1890, Theodore Roosevelt's ranch hands were already there; eager to see their longtime friend and meet his sister Corinne Roosevelt Robinson.

8/30/2009: As the walls went up, few knew of the hidden beams until one day in 1944 when they mysteriously appeared. The building was quickly enclosed and people gathered for the first Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit on this date in 1945.

8/27/2009: Life on a frontier army post in the 19th century was filled with hardships. For the men of the 1st US Volunteer Infantry Regiment at Fort Rice, one bright, but fleeting diversion came in the form of a 21-year-old woman named Elizabeth Cardwell.

8/25/2009: Young Kermit Roosevelt eagerly awaited letters from his father. They were filled with detailed images, sketched in words, of his father's adventures in the Dakota Badlands. All the Roosevelt children gloried in the stories of ranching and hunting contained in what they referred to as "picture letters," and literally read them to pieces. Although few of those letters survived, the pictures they painted in Kermit's imagination endured.

8/16/2009: In 1843, naturalist John James Audubon spent the summer at Fort Union collecting mammal specimens. Until his departure from the region on this date, it was up to the fort superintendent, Alexander Culbertson, to ensure Audubon's visit was a success.

8/14/2009: On this date in 1945, President Truman announced on national radio the unconditional surrender of Japan. His message, signaling the end of World War II, was met with wild jubilation across the country. But for one former North Dakotan, the news was bittersweet.

8/13/2009: The Dakota Badlands played an important role in Theodore Roosevelt's life. He often said he never would have been President had it not been for his experiences in Dakota Territory. But what may be surprising is the immense role the Dakota Badlands also played in the lives of Roosevelt's children. None of Roosevelt's six children ever lived in Dakota, but their father's stories were enough to intrigue even the youngest mind.

7/25/2009: Politicians often enter public service with a background in business, law or journalism. But Dakota's eighth territorial governor brought a unique set of skills to the political table. Although trained as a lawyer, Gilbert A. Pierce was also a widely-acclaimed author of fiction.

7/23/2009: The 1942 Battle of Midway was a turning point in the war in the Pacific. The Japanese fleet had suffered a crushing blow, but they still had an ace up their sleeve: the secret aircraft carrier, Shinano.