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2/13/2006: Newton Edmunds was a significant and stabilizing figure in the turbulent years of Dakota Territory. He lived through eighteen years of Dakota Territory and the first nineteen years of the state of South Dakota, and died on this day, in 1908.

2/15/2006: On this day in 1870, officials of the Northern Pacific Railroad held a groundbreaking ceremony, driving the first spike of a new transcontinental railway that would eventually connect Lake Superior to Puget Sound on the Pacific coast. The event was held at Northern Pacific Junction, about 20 miles west of Duluth, Minnesota. The place where the Northern Pacific Railroad would meet the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad was also known as Thompson’s Junction, and is now known as Carlton, Minnesota.

2/17/2006: Yesterday’s Dakota Datebook told of a tow-headed little Norwegian immigrant boy who grew up in Williams County, North Dakota, turned to a life of crime at age 16 and did time in three western state pens before vanishing in the early 1920s. Johnny Johnson knew how to handle a gun and was at home in the outdoors…when he wasn’t locked behind bars. He frequently changed his name and stayed on the moved.

2/18/2006: On this day in 1889 Aloisius Joseph Muench (MENCH) was born in Milwaukee—the first of eight children born to German-Bohemian immigrants Joseph and Theresa Muench.

2/19/2006: On this day in 1962 Pope John XXIII presided over the funeral of Aloisius Joseph Cardinal Muench at St. Peter’s Basilica, in Rome. Afterwards, the body of the former Bishop of Fargo was flown to Chicago, en route to services in Milwaukee. The bronze casket was then taken by train through a snowstorm to final services at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo.

2/20/2006: On this day in 1928, a four-day film festival of sorts opened in Fargo, and one of the films marked the beginning of a new era in movies. The headline on the Forum’s movie page read, “Best Motion Picture Program of Winter Offered in Fargo This Week.” Large display ads called it “Greater Pictures Week.” Looking back, both were understatements. This was a major turning point in movie history—the transition from silent films to feature length “talkies” had reached North Dakota.

2/23/2006: Eighty years ago this week, five St. Joseph’s Hospital workers died one after the other, and no one knew the cause. The fifth victim, Sister Secundia, died on this day in 1926. The deaths were a puzzling and devastating loss for the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross and the community of Dickinson…and a riddle for the medical community.

2/24/2006: Not to be confused with Fargo State Representative Jim Kasper, an advocate for North Dakota becoming a legal safe haven for online poker parlors, the original Poker Jim is a legendary North Dakota Badlands cowboy who lies buried in a cemetery that bears his name in McKenzie county, near the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

2/25/2006: Today is the birthday of John Burke, an important figure in North Dakota history, as evidenced by the state’s placement of a bronze statue of Burke in the U.S. Capitol. He shares the honor with one other beloved figure in state history—Sakakawea.

2/28/2006: Around the turn of the last century, Park River was a thriving town situated at the intersection of the Park River and the Great Northern rail line, about 50 miles northwest of Grand Forks. Since the beginning of the town in 1884, all kinds of businesses had filled the lots on Briggs Avenue, forming a compact downtown where you could purchase virtually anything you might need.