Richard Campbell

10/17/2012: For many residents of LaMoure County, Independence Day was the highlight of the year. But in 1883 the day was more than a time of celebration; it became a battle in the war of rivalry between two towns.

6/17/2012: Pierre Chouteau, Jr. arrived at Fort Union in June of 1865 greatly distressed. He knew he was about to lose out on ownership of the fort.

5/31/2012: It had been two years since the US-Dakota Conflict of 1862 and, as part of the campaign to counter spreading hostilities, the Army planned to establish forts along the Missouri River, including the existing Fort Union Trading Post.

5/3/2012: In 1874 the Headquarters Hotel was the pride and joy of Fargo. Built two years earlier by the Northern Pacific Railroad, it was touted as one of the finest hotels in the northwest. But on the morning of September 22, a fire broke out in the kitchen. Proving to be too much for the hotel staff, the building was a total loss.

9/28/2011: Today a North Dakota legislator from Pembina County could hop in a car and drive to the state legislature in about five hours. When Antoine Gingras was elected to represent the Pembina district in the territorial legislature in 1851, it wasn’t so easy.

6/16/2011: Profit was the driving force behind John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company. The objective: deliver the most furs at the lowest possible cost while discouraging competition. To such ends, the American Fur Company constructed Fort Union in 1827 at the strategic location of the Missouri and Yellowstone confluence, effectively eliminating small opposition posts in the region.

4/23/2011: Born on this date in 1803, Father George Anthony Belcourt was gifted with unusual linguistic abilities and a heart for Native Americans.

4/8/2010: "E'en though a cross it be, Nearer, my God to Thee," This was the hymn Libbie Custer and other officers' wives sang on June 25th, 1876 as they gathered together at Fort Abraham Lincoln, lamenting the absence of their husbands. Little did they know that at that moment their worst fears were coming true at the Little Bighorn.

3/26/2010: When Alexander Henry built a North West Company trading post near the Red River in 1801, he knew the competition would be stiff.

7/19/2009: Camped on the outskirts of the Black Hills, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry prepared to enter unrecorded country on this day in 1874. Over the next 27 days, the 1,000-man military expedition from Fort Abraham Lincoln documented their findings.