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12/7/2016: For many young people growing up in North Dakota during the 1920s and the 1930s, there was little opportunity to find decent jobs. Farms were falling to the mortgage man as drought made it difficult to scrape out even a marginal living from the land. Those who could afford to, went to college to learn a trade and start a career. For some, there were the jobs provided by the Civilian Conservation Corps or the Works Progress Administration. But then there were those who longed for adventure and wished to see the world. They traded their life from a sea of waving grass to the open sea with a stint in the US Navy.

12/14/2016: On this date in 1944, Senator Gerald Nye made news by marrying Arda Marguerite Johnson in Iowa Falls. It had been less than a year since Nye’s first wife divorced him. Nye was a Cooperstown newspaper editor when he began his 20-year U.S. Senate career in 1925 when he was 33 … a Republican endorsed by the Non-Partisan League.

12/19/2016: Far away in North Dakota’s extreme northwest corner is the town of Alkabo. The state’s northwestern-most town has never been very big, though it was built along the Soo Line Railroad. On this date in 1913, its post office opened, with more development to come, but it would later wither away.

12/23/2016: In 1915, Williston was a town to watch. Established in 1887 as a station along the Great Northern Railroad tracks, WIlliston was named for Daniel WIllis James, a stockholder of the line and friend of James J. Hill. Williston became a city in 1904. Just over a decade later, the city was undergoing a multitude of improvements. At the beginning of December, an article in the Grand Forks Daily Herald noted that a new record had been set in the city history, with new construction in 1915 valued at more than $100,000.

12/26/2016: Donald Emerson was born on a farm near Joliette North Dakota in 1923. While growing up Don was fascinated with airplanes. Occasionally, young Donald would see a small biplane flying over the farm, and chores were forgotten as Don ran after the plane to watch it disappear over the horizon.

12/28/2016: For decades, downtown Fargo had a candy factory that made everything from marshmallows to chocolates. C.A. Everhart & Co. had its start in 1895 when Wisconsin native Charles A. Everhart came to Fargo. His first confectionary was located at 17 Roberts Street, in the area of today’s Renaissance Hall. The early factory sat near Fargo’s city hall, firehouse and post office.

2/21/2017: In April of 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress and asked for a declaration of war against Germany. Wilson cited Germany’s use of unrestricted submarine warfare, as well as its attempts to entice Mexico into an alliance against the United States. Congress voted in favor of Wilson’s request. In June, the first 14,000 American troops landed in France.

3/3/2017: A variety of towns waxed and waned along the Missouri River in North Dakota, like Deapolis, Sanger and Wogansport. Wogansport is about 18 miles north of Bismarck on the east bank of the Missouri River, but not much remains today except for a farm or two. However, a post office established on this date in 1882 seemed to promise good things for the site.

3/15/2017: On this date in 1977, the trial of Leonard Peltier was in its second day. Peltier was an activist in the American Indian Movement or AIM and, in 1972, he took part in a 71-day standoff with FBI agents at Wounded Knee. The years after the standoff were marked by violence between the tribal administration of Dick Wilson and his opponents, who were supported by AIM.

3/14/2017: Leonard Peltier has become larger than life since receiving back-to-back life sentences for the murder of two FBI agents in a shootout in Pine Ridge, South Dakota over 40 years ago. It was on this date in 1977 that his trial in Fargo began.