Jacob Clauson

Settlers in the Dakotas faced many challenges as they crossed the plains. There were the financial pressures as they attempted to forge a living from the prairie soils, and of course the extreme weather conditions, with a great range in both temperature and weather patterns. The state’s record high and low temps occurred in the same year, 1936. The high, 5th highest in the U.S., was an astounding 121 degrees, and the low was -60, a 181-degree difference.

9/9/2013: Local and federal law enforcement officers had their work cut out for them during the Prohibition Era (1920-1933). The nation was divided over Prohibition; some believed the law could reform all Americans, while others saw nothing wrong with making liquor, selling it or drinking it.

8/21/2013: During Prohibition, some North Dakotans illegally produced and transported liquor for the consumption of the masses. From 1920 to 1933, bootleggers smuggled whisky from Canada across the border and into North Dakota to be transported to Minnesota in their “whisky-sixes” –powerful six-cylinder cars. Breaking the Prohibition laws was said to be a “thrilling North Dakota sport,” and the state’s chief enforcement officer, F.L. Watkins, said “an average of 200 automobile loads a month, 20 cases [of whisky] to a load” passed through North Dakota in 1921.