Jayme L. Job

7/15/2012: The steamboat Yellowstone made history on this date in 1832, completing the first successful voyage up the Missouri River to Fort Union, in present-day North Dakota.

7/13/2012: The Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site opened on this date in 2009 near Cooperstown, North Dakota. Containing both the Oscar-Zero Missile Alert Facility and the November-33 Launch Facility, the site “…introduces visitors to the state’s role in international relations and the significance of missile installations on North Dakota’s history and culture.” On continuous alert for nearly thirty years, both sites served as part of the United States’ strategy of nuclear deterrence during the Cold War.

7/10/2012: John Miller Baer, the first Representative elected to Congress under the endorsement of the Nonpartisan League, began his first full term on this date in 1917. Baer had been first elected to serve a partial term in 1915, filling the vacancy left by Representative Henry Helgesen.

7/9/2012: Swiss artist Rudolph Kurz began working for the American Fur Company on this date in 1851. Unlike fellow western artist George Catlin, twenty-nine year old Kurz had been subjected to intense artistic training in Europe. For over twelve years he had studied under Classical masters, including fellow Swiss artist Karl Bodmer. It was Bodmer who suggested Kurz gain experience in America.

7/8/2012: The first instrumentally-located earthquake in the history of North Dakota occurred on this date in 1968.

7/7/2012: With temperatures as high as 119 degrees, North Dakotans were battling one of the worst droughts in American history on this date in 1936.

7/5/2012: Fargo Police Officer Frederick Alderman was accidentally shot and killed in the line of duty on this date in 1882. At only twenty-five years old, the ill-fated officer had served with the department only two months.

7/3/2012: C. L. Murphy accidentally discovered natural gas near Westhope, North Dakota, on this date in 1907. Murphy had set up a wooden drilling rig in hopes of locating water on land owned by W. B. Parker. Mr. Parker hired Murphy to build a well for his livestock and farm operations, and was surprised to hear that his holdings included an immense reservoir of ‘marsh gas,’ as natural gas was known at the time.

7/2/2012: A tornado struck near Walcott, North Dakota, on this date in 1955. Although rated an F4 on the Fujita scale, the National Weather Service claims that the tornado probably reached the wind speed and size of an F5 several times before it dissipated. If true, it would be one of only three F5 tornadoes to hit the state. Two people lost their lives in the storm and many rural families lost their homes and farms. Those who lived through the storm still remember the tornado’s fury.

7/1/2012: North Dakota’s infamous “Ten-Minute Divorce” law expired on this date in 1899, making the state’s quickie divorces a thing of the past.