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12/8/2017: Nowadays, we often take for granted that if there’s an emergency, we can call an ambulance. That’s often thanks to a few hard-working people who made an effort to provide the service. In the not so recent past, the people of Lidgerwood, North Dakota came together to do just that.

12/13/2017: For almost sixty thousand dollars, Dakota Territory constructed a penitentiary in Sioux Falls during 1881 and 1882. Territorial Governor Nehemiah Ordway signed the legislation to fund the prison, which was built on eighty-five acres of land. The facility was meant to house between 125 and 150 inmates.

12/14/2017: On this date in 1900, the Devils Lake Inter-Ocean reported on the Farmer’s Institute held in that community. Attendance was very good in spite of inclement weather. The institute was sponsored by the experimental farm at the North Dakota Agriculture College in Fargo. The college provided the speakers for the institute.

12/25/2017: For the Red Cross, December of 1917 was an active season in North Dakota. With loved ones ever closer to the front, there was an urgency to ensure that the boys had the comforts of home as much as possible. Red Cross knitting parties were held across the state. In a three week campaign, over two hundred sweaters were knitted in Eddy County so every soldier from that county would have a warm garment.

12/26/2017: In the Korean War, the U.S. spent 67 billion dollars and deployed 90% of the troops fighting for South Korea. It was a highly unpopular in North Dakota. For many of the soldiers deployed there, it had a different feeling than fighting in World War 2. There seemed to be no clear reason or cause to justify it. However, despite the resistance to the war, 2,600 soldiers from the North Dakota National Guard served in the military during that time, with 800 of them overseas.

12/28/2017: North Dakota’s Supreme Court has changed a fair amount from its early years. Since 1910, members of the bench have been elected on a no-party ballot. In 1930, term limits increased from six to ten years. In 1985, Beryl Levine became the first woman to serve on the court.

8/11/2016: North Dakota has had no shortage of aviation heroes. Carl Ben Eielson was a daring pilot, one of two men to fly over both Polar Regions in the same year. He was killed in an air crash in Siberia. Another aviator, Florence Klingensmith was inspired to fly by Charles Lindbergh’s visit to Fargo in 1928. She bought a plane and christened it “Miss Fargo.” In 1932 she won the coveted Amelia Earhart trophy. She was killed in an air crash during a race in 1933.

8/17/2016: Gale “Buck” Cleven was born on a homestead near Lemmon, South Dakota, along the Grand River. From there, Buck and his family moved to Wyoming. After Cleven finished High School and several years at the University of Wyoming, he decided to join the Army Air Force and was a bomber pilot when the US entered the war in 1941.

8/26/2016: Boom and bust is a cycle that truly defines North Dakota’s state history. From settlement to agriculture to weather, North Dakota knows good times and bad. The state’s oil industry is a classic example.

8/30/2016: Automobiles changed life in America about as much as any invention of the 1900s. In a rural state like North Dakota, the long distances made automobiles a particularly welcome improvement over horse and buggy.