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12/5/2013: When the state of Minnesota was organized in 1858, settlers living to the west of the new state boundary began to examine their own situation. Prior to being carved out as a state, Minnesota had been a part of the much larger Minnesota Territory, which had extended west to the Missouri River. Now, residents living between the Red and Missouri were no longer part of the organized Minnesota Territory, but were living in an essentially unorganized frontier. Without a territorial government, they had lost the political structure, representation, and protections they had previously enjoyed. A movement began calling for a territorial government west of the Red River.

12/31/2013: In the early 20th century, many North Dakota communities held balls to celebrate the New Year. They often used the occasions as fundraisers for charitable causes or specific funds. For example, when the residents of Williston wanted a band in 1901, they held a New Year’s Eve ball to raise funds. Over sixty couples attended the ball to hear the brand new orchestra play; they danced into the New Year to “exceptionally good” music, which the band played until three in the morning. The Williston Graphic reported that the residents “…may well feel proud of the band and of her orchestra.”

1/10/2014: The city of Grand Forks had a certified hero just over a century ago, and his name was William Cross. It was on this date in 1909 when the readers of the Grand Forks Herald became aware that the Carnegie Hero Medal, given to William Cross, had been placed on display in Munro’s Jewelry Store.

1/21/2014: In 1889, with the Territorial Legislature in its fourteenth day, thoughts of impending statehood were on the minds of most of the legislators, but little in the way of statehood legislation had actually surfaced.

1/24/2014: In Meredith Wilson's musical The Music Man, flim-flam man extraordinaire, Professor Harold Hill, not only sells a small town in Iowa on the idea of a boy's marching band, but also the uniforms to go with it...complete with the stripe up the side of the leg.

1/28/2014: On this date in 1950, students at the North Dakota Agricultural College in Fargo, now NDSU, were enjoying a very special gift received from Fargo Radio Station WDAY..."twenty-five thousand dollars worth of outmoded radio broadcasting equipment."

1/29/2014: William Skjerven Sr., also called Bill, was a locally celebrated inventor in Walsh County. He was born on a farm in Fertile Township, Walsh County, and moved into Park River in 1916. He repaired cars and motorcycles in various garages until he opened his own garage in 1927. During World War II, he converted his garage into a war plant where he manufactured M105 and M115 bomb caps, machine gun cleaning rods, and other items. An estimated 800 per day of the bomb caps were turned out for the Minneapolis Ordinance Center.

2/6/2014: By the time the 1889 Territorial Legislature had passed its 30th day, the harmony that existed in the first weeks of the session had basically vanished. Statehood was within reach, and most people had hoped the Legislature would do nothing other than set the stage for the constitutional conventions, but instead, over four hundred bills had been introduced.

2/10/2014: On this date in 1938, the Bismarck Tribune reported the good fortune of two cousins living in North Dakota. Eva and Andy Larson had just learned they were to receive part of the Amsterdam Fortune, an inheritance due to the 6th generation descendants of the Sabo family.

2/24/2014: It read, “An act to provide for the division of the territory of Dakota into two states and to enable the people of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington to form constitutions and state governments and to be admitted to the union on an equal footing with the original states.” This phrase may not sound too exciting, but to the people of Dakota Territory, Section One of the Omnibus Bill was sheer poetry on this date in 1889. The wait was finally over.