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3/29/2016: Minot, North Dakota is no stranger to fiery disasters. The city lost banks, businesses and hotels in nearly every decade of the 20th century. On this date in 1909, Minot residents read about the fire at the Daily Optic newspaper. The Ward County Reporter story told of four firefighters being injured in the blaze, which damaged the office’s paper, type and machinery.

4/5/2016: Fifty years ago the National Historic Preservation Act was created to help preserve the diverse archaeological and architectural treasures of America. Among those treasures were the bonanza farms with their images of agricultural abundance that helped promote the huge influx of settlers to Dakota Territory.

5/2/2016: Fifty years ago the National Historic Preservation Act was created to help preserve the diverse archaeological and architectural treasures of America. Often it takes the efforts of dedicated preservationists to wrest a structure from the wrecking ball. Such was the case with the Oxford House on the University of North Dakota campus.

5/11/2016: May 17 commemorates the signing of Norway’s Constitution in 1814. Syttende Mai is a big holiday in Norway. Every town has a celebration. In the capitol of Oslo, a children’s parade ends at Castle Square where the Norwegian royal family greets the participants. It is a holiday not just in Norway, but wherever there are Norwegians. And that includes North Dakota.

5/16/2016: Over two miles long, the Garrison Dam is one of the largest rolled earth dams on the planet. It’s construction brought degrees of misery for many of those involved. The Three Affiliated Tribes lost the rich Missouri river bottomland of the Fort Berthold Reservation. The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people had cultivated these lands for generations. The flooding forced them to higher ground and poorer soil.

5/17/2016: The First North Dakota Volunteer Infantry played a crucial role in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War that followed. Eighteen out of twenty-five members of the unit known as Young’s Scouts came from North Dakota. While virtually unknown today, the Scouts were hailed as heroes in their day.

5/18/2016: Few things can offer better excitement for a youngster in small-town North Dakota than a trip to the movie theatre for the latest in cinema extravagance. This wondrous feeling still exists in Cando thanks to the Municipal Auditorium, more commonly known to townspeople as “The Audi.”

5/30/2016: Until 1885, anyone infected with rabies was not expected to survive. That year, two scientists, Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux, developed the first vaccine for rabies. They used it on Joseph Meister, a nine-year-old boy bitten by a rabid dog. Meister lived another 55 years, and was the first person known to survive rabies.

6/3/2016: The city names Bismarck and Mandan naturally go together, like ‘peaches and cream,’ like “summer and baseball,’ or like ‘Lewis and Clark.’ Geographically, Bismarck and Mandan are sister cities, located on either side of the Missouri River. Despite the proximity, they stand as rivals, in football, baseball, and sundry sports.

6/6/2016: In North Fargo, a gigantic ski jump once stood, high above the banks of the Red River. The ski jump towered over the landscape from the time of its construction in 1935 until 1942, when it was torn down. The ski jump had to be demolished because the worst thing that could happen with a high place had happened. A young man, age 20, fell from the jump and died.