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8/27/2015: There was a time in Dakota Territory, when the bounty of nature seemed limitless, with countless buffalo, ducks and geese, along with endless grasslands and enough lignite-coal to last for centuries. Even fish, in rivers, streams and lakes, appeared to be over-abundant, as it was written in 1885, of Devils Lake – its “supply of extra fine fish is inexhaustible.”

9/28/2015: Rats were not native to America, but came from the Old World on ships about 1775. These gray rats, officially known as Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus), arrived in Dakota on the early Missouri River steamboats. The rats found food and cover near trading posts and Indian villages. As towns sprung up in the 1890s, rats moved in by hitching rides aboard freight trains and steamboats.

10/5/2015: By the fall of 1945, the Second World War was over. All of the Axis powers had surrendered. Troops began to return home. More goods were becoming available. Life was slowly returning to normal. The country seemed to heave a sigh of relief at the thought of living in a world at peace.

10/7/2015: On this date in 1996, a journalism legend died in New York. He was Edward K. Thompson, a recipient of North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award in 1968.

10/9/2015: On this date in 1926, the Fargo Forum and Daily Republican reported the second arrest of Norris Forrest. Forrest was the “Lone Wolf” burglar of Minot, North Dakota. He had been arrested and committed to the Ward County Jail, but he quickly broke out and disappeared.

10/13/2015: North Dakota is a major agricultural state, but while people might think of sugar beets, wheat or soybeans, they rarely think of rabbits. However, North Dakota has a history of commercial rabbit production for food and fur. Rabbit was common menu fare until the increase in beef consumption in the 1960s.

10/15/2015: In the fall of 1912, the political situation between Turkey and the Balkan states was tense, with both sides wanting to control territory that included Thrace and Macedonia. Greece, Montenegro, Serbia and Bulgaria had united as the Balkan League and were interested in expelling Turkey from the region.

10/16/2015: The city of Casselton has a great claim to fame in North Dakota with five of its residents going on to become governor. One of them, current governor Jack Dalrymple, was born on this date in 1948 in Minneapolis. He was raised on his great-grandfather’s farm near Casselton, an operation with roots that extended back to the days of the Bonanza farms. The future governor graduated from Yale in 1970 with a bachelor’s in American Studies. He then returned to his North Dakota farming roots. He married Betsy Wood in 1971, and the couple raised four daughters.

10/22/2015: The man known as the first white accepted into the Yanktonai Sioux Nation penned a letter to relatives on this date in 1913, describing his experiences at Fort Yates, North Dakota. Alfred B. Welch, a North Dakota National Guard commander, was given the name Charging Bear by Chief John Grass, who a few months earlier had also adopted Welch as his son in a ceremony with over 500 in attendance.

10/23/2015: In his extensive history of North Dakota, Elwyn Robinson describes how Norwegian immigrants made their mark. They carved out homesteads and settled the land. As the railroads came through and towns sprouted on the prairie, these new immigrants adopted the language of their new home. Many Anglicized their names. Laverans Fjelstad became Lewis Fisk. But at the same time, these newcomers clung to their homeland, often subscribing to Norwegian newspapers. They cooked lefse and lutefisk. They were Americans, but they never forgot that they came from Norwegian stock.