Steve Stark

4/21/2012: Carl Ben Eielson’s history-making 1928 flight over the North Pole in his orange Lockheed Vega was reported on this date in North Dakota papers, but another colorful flight made smaller, more hysterical than historical headlines in the state.

4/20/2012: On this date in 1966, citizens of Fargo, and especially high school students, were reeling in the aftermath of a fire that had destroyed the high school just 24 hours earlier. Fargo Central was the city’s south side public high school. The three story school of elegant red brick, was 45 years old, built after the first Central High School, built in 1882, also burned down.

4/15/2012: Call it “The tax man waiteth” – a late-comers dream made true. Time didn’t exactly stand still a year ago today, but it did slow down the income tax deadline for procrastinators and made for a special North Dakota week.

4/14/2012: CNN was wrapping up coverage of Red River Flooding on this date in 1997. The network reported about the process of post flood clean-up.

4/13/2012: Discovering the tracks of a giant, unknown beast is a staple of monster stories. Fear can be heightened in that situation if one has an imagined notion of the ferocity of the being that left the tracks.

4/8/2012: It is still referred to as the flood of the century-when the Red River struck in the spring of ’97. Only four years had passed from the destruction from the Great Fargo Fire when on this date in 1897, the crest was rolling northward as the Red River stunned Fargo and Grand Forks.

4/7/2012: Throughout history, American cities tend to bustle with special excitement when a president visits. Not only do presidential visits inspire celebration and news, they usually secure a strong place in their own historical record.

4/6/2012: Every day and every night, soldiers stand in stony vigil in North Dakota. That’s because these guardians are statues, actually made of stone. Their sole post is to serve as remembrance for their fallen comrades in arms – comrades who served in the American Civil War.

4/4/2012: North Dakota oil drilling was an oddity in the first half of the 20th century. Thirty years of wildcat drilling in the state’s northwest corner left nothing but dry holes. So, in 1950, when the Clarence Iverson farm outside the community of Tioga hosted an oil drill, it was a real oddity. There were no small number of skeptics. Oil wells in North Dakota? Gushers in wheat country? The idea seemed absurd to many.

4/1/2012: It’s safe to say that not a single living North Dakotan remembers the state law prohibiting sale of tobacco to minors back in ’90 ... that’s because it was 1890 when the law was passed. As time went by, state lawmakers demonstrated even more spark in their anti-smoking zeal.