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Aurora Borealis in Dakota Territory

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How many times have you seen the Northern Lights in the nighttime sky? It has been reported that it was more common to see the them in North Dakota back in the 1880s. For example, on this date in 1887, the Griggs County [Cooperstown] Courier reported: “The aurora borealis or northern lights were beautifully visible in the northern skies on Monday night.”

True, the Northern Lights might have been easier to view in the deep past, but that would be expected, since the skies at night would have been darker in the years before streetlights and neon signs.

In fact, one observer in 1882 noted that the aurora borealis was of an almost “nightly appearance in the region.” In Jamestown that year there appeared an aurora borealis that “was particularly brilliant with lights intermingled with bright streaks of red.”

The Northern Lights displayed a “variety of colors, from a pale red or yellow to a deep red or blood color,” although green was the most commonly seen. The Northern Lights took shape as “long thin rays” that formed “curtains of light” with “ever-changing hues” that “move as in a breeze.”

Modern-day folks might wonder what “aurora” and “borealis” actually mean. The key element is the word: “Aurora,” meaning “dawn.” The word “Borealis,” means “Northern.” So the “Northern Dawn” was likened to a sunrise taking place in the north. This made for three kinds of colorful skies, at sunrise, sunset and the nighttime wonder of the Northern Lights.

The Northern Lights happen because of sunspot activity that produce solar flares -- “bursts of magnetized plasma and energetic waves” that strike Earth’s upper atmosphere, triggering a dazzling geomagnetic storm of “gases and particles in Earth’s magnetosphere.” These particles and gases flow to Earth’s magnetic poles, south or north. The magnetized rush to the North Pole brings the aurora borealis to North Dakota.

An early North Dakotan observer wrote of a “Ribbon in the Sky ... “spreading over the northern horizon” with an “unearthly, mysterious glow” exhibiting a nighttime rainbow of “transparent and seemingly trembling light.”

If you have never seen the Northern Lights, check out an “Aurora Forecast & Alert” app for the opportune time, and steer clear of artificial lights.

Take time to experience the wonder. You'll be glad you did.

Dakota Datebook by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck, MSUM History Department

Sources:
“The Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights,” Griggs County [Cooperstown] Courier, February 25, 1887, p. 2.

“The Aurora Borealis,” Jamestown Weekly Alert, April 21, 1882, p. 4.

“A Gentleman Who Returned From Fargo,” Bismarck Tribune, May 5, 1882, p. 2.

“A Ribbon in the Sky,” Jamestown Weekly Alert, May 10, 1888, p. 4.

“Dakota’s Nights,” Bismarck Tribune, November 16, 1883, p. 1.

“Aurora Borealis,” World Book Encyclopedia, print edition.

“Auroras Announce the Solar Cycle,” NASA Earth Observatory, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148952/auroras-announce-the-solar-cycle, accessed on January 18, 2022.

Dakota Datebook is made in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and funded by Humanities North Dakota, a nonprofit, independent state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the program do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities North Dakota or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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