Tessa Sandstrom

6/22/2007: Right now in Fessenden, the annual Wells County Fair is underway. This fair, however, is not just any fair. Today and the rest of this weekend, Wells County is celebrating the event’s 100th birthday, a landmark only four other county fairs in North Dakota have been able to celebrate.

6/10/2007: On this day in 1956, 5,000 onlookers gathered in the International Peace Gardens as Charlton Heston dedicated a monolith bearing the Ten Commandments.

6/8/2007: When the Europeans first discovered America, some of the first immigrants of the area were missionaries who came to spread the word of God to the native inhabitants. While the Catholic priests and missionaries were more prominent in the southern part of the United States and into Mexico, missionaries were active among the natives on the Northern plains. Their efforts included not only converting the Native Americans to Christianity, but also establishing monasteries for the men and women. On this day in 1889, the New York Freeman’s Journal and Catholic Register reported on Josephine Crowfeather as the first full-blood Sioux to enter the Benedictine Novitiate.

6/7/2007: Yesterday we discussed the Bataan Death March. Thomas Hammel, whose experiences we shared yesterday, may have made it through the march, but he now faced life in a Japanese prisoner camp. This day in 1942, Hammel was officially done marching, but his three years as a prisoner of war were just beginning.

6/6/2007: Thomas M. Hammel was a ranching boy who had grown up in the North Dakota Badlands. As a boy, he had worked on his father’s ranch, in the CCC and later on other ranches in North Dakota and Montana. Work was no doubt part of his life, but this work would pale in comparison to what he faced several years later.

5/29/2007: Today, anti-war sentiments are high as protesters like Cindy Sheehan are outspoken about the war in Iraq. Wars like Vietnam continually come up as comparisons, but few ever consider World War One or World War Two as “unpopular wars.” On this day in 1920, however, Kate Richards O’Hare was pardoned from her five year sentence in the federal penitentiary for her outspoken opposition to World War One.

5/26/2007: Tiger Woods could just as well forget it if he was to participate at the Bismarck Country Club Memorial Day golf tournament. Shushing caddies and certainly no “Quiet Please” signs were allowed.

5/24/2007: With the construction of the railroad, towns blossomed every few miles along the tracks, and each was confident that it would soon grow from a village to a prosperous city. On this day in 1946, it was much the same as a super highway was being constructed for the Garrison Dam.

5/21/2007: Today there are a growing number of trends and diets that are supposed to help Americans, especially children, get healthier. From avoiding carbs to eliminating transfats some people have tried everything. Or have they?

5/20/2007: In early April, two strange metal balls were found near Create in southeastern North Dakota.