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Steve Stark

Contributor, Dakota Datebook
  • 10/30/2012: They were called soiled doves, fallen angels and scarlet women. In the early days of statehood, these monikers referred to the women who plied the trade of prostitution. And during the waning years of the 19th century, that trade was prosperous, conflicted, and deadly in the streets of Fargo.
  • 8/7/2012: As hyperbolic newspaper headlines go, this was a doozy. It even took precedence over the electrifying stories about Nazi threats and Russian and Japanese military attacks. Readers of the daily Jamestown Sun on August 7, 1941 were greeted with a top-of-the-fold, bold face headline in capital letters screaming: BUBONIC PLAGUE FOUND IN NORTH DAKOTA.
  • 7/29/2012: Walter Stockwell, the Grand Secretary of the Masonic Grand Lodge of North Dakota claimed an unusual recognition this date in 1945.
  • 7/12/2012: A Viking monarch sculpted in stone celebrates his 100th birthday today in Fargo. While the striking figure is one of the city’s most recognized, it is likely one of its least known or understood. Who is that Viking and why is he nearly hidden in a small downtown park?
  • 7/6/2012: If we were to read this headline today in North Dakota, it still might pique interest. Imagine it as the banner headline of the Fargo Forum in 1947. Typeset in all boldface capital letters it read, Report: “Flying Saucer” Seen in N.D.
  • 7/4/2012: Dakota Datebook has often chronicled the July 4, 1914 celebration of North Dakota’s and Norway’s historical ties with the Lincoln statue dedication ceremonies. That event featured Gov. William Hanna and a contingent of state personalities, including former Lincoln White House guard Smith Stimmel, at Kristiania, Norway.
  • 6/27/2012: Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol was established in 1862 to celebrate individuals who reflect historic renown or distinguished service in their state’s history. Long before the well-known statue of Sacagawea was enshrined in the Hall in 2003, the first North Dakotan selected was Governor “Honest” John Burke. Burke was a reform-minded governor who also became the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
  • 6/26/2012: Still stunned by the tornado that ripped through Fargo the previous week, residents were in the exhaustive process of disaster clean-up. On this date in 1957, funds for aiding the victims passed the $50,000 mark. The Forum newspaper reported the following day that the money gave a strong morale boost to the hundreds of people engaged in the dismal aftermath of the tornado.
  • 6/20/2012: It can arguably be called the most stunning and impactful photograph in North Dakota’s legacy of tough weather.
  • 6/14/2012: Military forts established on America’s western frontier were often named in honor of military personnel – soldiers from enlisted men through generals. They commemorated individual for bravery, military record, death or wounds on the field of battle, or length of service. For example, Fort Lincoln in Texas in was named in 1848 for U.S. Infantry Captain George Lincoln, killed in action the previous year.