Lane Sunwall

7/19/2011: On this date in 1964 the National Park Service designated a small, abandoned American Indian Village located near present-day Menoken, ND, a National Historic Landmark.

6/21/2011: With the start of summer today, the vacation season begins in earnest, a season the state tourism board has aptly encapsulated in one word – Legendary. North Dakota’s tourism motto unites the state’s modern vacation offerings with the figures of the state’s storied past; like Lewis and Clark, Sitting Bull and Theodore Roosevelt.

6/17/2011: Although Theodore Roosevelt’s time in Dakota was short, the territory nonetheless left a distinct mark on the future president. His vigorous life in Dakota taught the sickly easterner the value of a hard day’s work and the inherent worth of even a common laborer. Roosevelt’s experiences in the Dakota Badlands did more than undermine the social elitism of his wealthy East Coast past – it dramatized the beauty of the American West and the need to care for and preserve the land.

3/14/2011: Following the conclusion of George W. Bush’s presidency, Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer and his wife Nancy left the national spotlight in Washington D.C. and moved back to their home in Fargo, North Dakota.

3/9/2011: North Dakotan politics in the 1930s were a whirlwind of controversy and acrimony as members of two divergent branches of the Republican Party fought a knock-down, drag-out civil war for control of state politics. Perhaps no politician’s career better reflected the nature of this civil war than Governor William Langer, a leading member of the Non-Partisan League, or NPL, a progressive wing of the Republican Party.

2/17/2011: For the rock-bottom price of fifteen million dollars, the United States laid claim to 828,000 square miles of the North American interior. Yet, many believed the Louisiana Purchase to be a mistake.

1/5/2011: Born and raised in Norway, John Moses, the future governor of North Dakota, first arrived on America’s shores in 1905.

1/4/2011: The 1930s proved to be a political rollercoaster for North Dakota’s most flamboyant and controversial politician, William Langer; the man who in six years, won, lost and then won again North Dakota’s governorship.

12/30/2010: It was this day in 1829 that the “Father of Jamestown,” Anton Klaus, was born in Brutting Prussia. Like many other Germans of his era, Klaus saw great opportunity across the Atlantic and so set sail for America, arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, November 1849.

11/29/2010: Beyond advising Americans to move west, Horace Greeley had little to do with Dakota Territory. Thus, a post in the territory named in his honor may appear odd. But, Greeley was more than a simple supporter of American expansion; he was an immensely influential editor of the New York Tribune, and a presidential candidate in 1872.