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10/8/2015: Around this time in the fall of 1914, new Fairview Lift Bridge and Cartwright Tunnel opened for traffic. The Great Northern Railway had begun construction in 1912 as part of its Montana Eastern Railway, a line that was never finished.

10/12/2015: For many people in North Dakota, the word “Scheels” will likely conjure images of ‘sports’ and ‘hunting’ and ‘basketball-shoes’ and ‘fishing.’ But you might also think of “tradition” and “family,” for the Scheels stores have spanned five generations of the Scheel family.

10/28/2015: Following one of the most deadly flu pandemics in history, a 1919 October article in the Towner newspaper carried an article theorizing that the outbreak had probably stemmed from lack of embalming of black plague victims in the Middle Ages.

10/29/2015: Minnie Jean Nielson was a hardworking woman. Born in Jackson, Michigan, her family moved to Valley City, North Dakota where she attended high school. After graduating, she demonstrated her work ethic by going University of North Dakota, the University of Michigan, and summer school at the University of Chicago. She became a teacher of chemistry and physics at Valley City High School before leaving to become Barnes County Superintendent of Schools. She served in this position for 12 years, but this was not enough to satisfy Nielson. In 1918 she ran for state Superintendent of Public Instruction. At the time, it was the only statewide office open to women.

10/30/2015: North Dakota has more national wildlife refuges than any other state, 63 in total. On this date in 1935, the press was alerted to the establishment of two more of these "safety islands" in North Dakota – Des Lacs and Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuges. The two refuges were established to benefit migratory waterfowl. North Dakota sits in the heart of the Prairie Pothole Region, where half of North America's migratory waterfowl nest and breed.

11/16/2015: The city of Leith, North Dakota, breathed a small sigh of relief on this date in 2013 when two white supremacists with designs on the town were taken into custody. Craig Cobb and Kynan Dutton, two neo-Nazis, had patrolled the town with a shotgun and rifle that Saturday, leading to several 911 calls from Leith residents. The men were taken to the Mercer County Jail in Stanton.

11/17/2015: In 1979, the United States was in the throes of an energy crisis following the cutoff of Iranian oil. President Jimmy Carter said reserve supplies of oil were sufficient if people conserved, and there was no need to panic. But he also said it was crucial for the country to break its dependence on foreign oil.

11/23/2015: Baseball has long been America’s national game, and it was a proud year for North Dakota in 1913 when Alexander “Rube” Schauer became the state’s first major-league ballplayer. Schauer was born in Russia in 1891 and came to America with his family in 1900, settling in the town of Garrison.

11/24/2015: Today is often a date serving as the last day of the deer gun season in North Dakota, as it did in 2013. The state’s deer gun season opens at noon on the Friday designated by gubernatorial proclamation, typically the first Friday in November. The 16-and-a-half-day season usually closes on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

11/26/2015: A man of many hats was born on this date in 1814, but Andrew Jackson Faulk is most remembered as Dakota Territory’s third territorial governor. The Pennsylvania native received his education in his home state. As a young man he worked as a printer, editor and journalist for the Armstrong County Democrat, a Pennsylvania newspaper. He studied law and went on to enter politics, serving as a county treasurer. He also served as a lieutenant colonel for the state militia in 1842.