Search results for

7/21/2014: It has never been easy to be a farmer in North Dakota. One of the biggest problems can be a lack of rain. North Dakota averages of 17 inches of rain per year, making it one of the driest states. Studies of tree rings show that drought has been a problem in the area since the 1400s. Paradoxically, another problem is too much water. Flooding along the Red River often means standing water in the fields when it is time to plant.

7/23/2014: The Constitutional Convention had gotten off to a slow start. It was not until the 11thDay of the convention that the first resolution or file was introduced. Even then, procedural problems plagued the session and hampered any significant progress. Using language found in the constitutions from other states, delegates introduced possible articles, but often these were redundant and covered a wide variety of topics. There was of yet, no unified guide on which to base the constitution.

8/12/2016: Barnstorming baseball teams crisscrossed N.D. from the 1890s through the 1950s; and the “Hard Times” of the 1930s brought many African-American players, including Satchel Paige, to North Dakota – partly because the major and minor leagues had banned them. It is a little-known fact that “Buck” O’Neil was among those black ballplayers, playing in Dunseith, North Dakota in the summer of 1936.

8/25/2016: The town of Plaza, North Dakota was founded in 1906. The town grew quickly, and businessmen in the town wanted to purchase nearby land on the Berthold Indian Reservation. They reasoned that with the bison gone, the Indians did not need large expanses of land for hunting. There were many thousands of acres on the reservation that had not been allotted to individuals, and they felt the land was going to waste. Congressman Louis B. Hanna began the process of making the land available.

8/29/2016: The early days of North Dakota saw a boom as the railroad and settlement both grew. Many towns we know today grew from the tiny communities plopped down by the railroad tracks.

9/2/2016: The early years of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation took a major toll on the lives of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people. The federal government created the reservation in 1870 and named it after a nearby frontier fort. The government forced assimilation into the Euro-American way of life, putting natives on allotments of land to farm wheat.

9/5/2016: The Battle of Whitestone Hill was the bloodiest attack by whites in Dakota Territory. Up to 300 Sioux were killed and over 150 were captured. The soldiers destroyed the Sioux’s property as well, leaving them almost entirely unprepared for winter without food or shelter. General Alfred Sully’s expedition meant to punish the Sioux responsible for murders in Minnesota but the ones he encountered here were Ihunktonwan (ee-HOOnK-tooN-wahN) or Yankton Sioux, mostly not involved in those killings.

9/9/2016: In response to a number of baseball teams being cut from the major leagues, a new league formed in 1902 involving North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Manitoba, Iowa and Ontario.

9/13/2016: Two stories of the lost being found took place on this date in 1923. Our first story takes place in McLean County in a little town called Dogden, which was founded in 1906 along the Soo Line Railroad. The village got its name from a nearby landmark, Dogden Butte, which was favored by dens of wolves.

9/14/2016: Oftentimes we look at everyday items and have little idea why those things are the way they are. Take, for instance, the gasoline cans. Why are they colored red?