Trista Raezer-Stursa

On this day in 1992, the Dakota Clinic and Hospital in Fargo celebrated Dr. Blaine Amidon’s 50 years as an OB-GYN. The celebrated doctor had delivered an estimated 18,000 babies during his long career.

On this date in 1995, the Bismarck Tribune reported about the decay of the Fortuna Air Force Station. From 1951 to 1979, the station was an active radar station in the Air Defense Command that protected the United States from attack.

On this date in 2000, sculptor Tom Neary installed a 14-foot-tall stainless steel sign at the intersection of highways 83 and 200 in Washburn. The sign, which weighs almost a ton, reads “Historic Washburn” above a scene of Lewis, Clark, and Sakakawea. The giant sign was commissioned by the Washburn Civic Club and gave Tom Neary a chance to put his mark on the town he lived in and loved.

Downtown Fargo is instantly recognizable thanks to the iconic marquee of the Fargo Theatre, which casts the word “FARGO” in glowing lights across Broadway each night. Less than a block away is another beloved landmark, the distinctive sign for the White Banner Uniform Shop. With its black-and-white, angular Mid-Century Modern flair, the sign has been a visual staple of Broadway since at least the 1950s, earning its place as perhaps the second most iconic sign in Fargo.

As Cold War tensions escalated in the years following World War II, North Dakota found itself on the front lines of America’s defense against a potential Soviet attack. The U.S. Air Force established a network of bases and radar stations across the state. One such installation was Finley Air Force Station, which became operational in 1951, just a mile and a half outside of Finley, North Dakota. Like the station near Fortuna, Finley was part of a broader radar defense network designed to monitor the skies for enemy aircraft and guide interceptor jets.

During this week in 1996, Roosevelt Elementary School in Fargo, North Dakota, celebrated its 75th anniversary. Among the honored guests was one of the school’s most beloved retired teachers: 91-year-old music instructor Martha Hook.

Actively investing in the stock market can be intimidating for most people. There's a steep learning curve and the constant fear of losing money. But a group of women in Bismarck faced that fear head-on, pooling their resources and knowledge to take on the stock market. On this date in 1999, Fargo newspaper readers learned about the Big Time Operators Investment Club in Bismarck. Known as the BTO Club for short, the twenty women met monthly to discuss stocks they were researching and vote on what to buy and sell.

Small towns in North Dakota reached their business and population peak in the 1920s. While cities like Bismarck, Fargo, and Grand Forks continue to grow and draw shoppers from miles around, many small towns have struggled, losing businesses, schools, churches, and their reason for being.

On this date in 1998, The Fargo Forum ran a photo of Miss North Dakota 1997, Roxana Saberi, showing a student at Fargo’s Nativity Catholic School how to wear a kimono. Roxana was giving a presentation about appreciating cultural differences and similarities. Promoting cultural appreciation during her year-long reign as Miss North Dakota was very important to the Fargo native.

It’s hard to remember why there was fear that the world might end on January 1, 2000, when we now know that nothing happened. During the late 1990s, computer programmers around the world worked hard to fix computer software to ensure that computers did not mistake the year 2000 for the year 1900, which could have caused infrastructure crashes. Despite reassurances from experts that nothing bad would happen, many people reacted in panic, hoarding supplies or foreseeing an apocalypse.