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10/25/2006: Today’s story is about Lt. Col. James Buzick, a Fargo man who started his military career in WWII. Buzick was an original member of the 577th Squadron of the 392nd bomb group, which flew its first combat mission in September 1943. He was a ball turret gunner on a B-24H S/N 42-7495, the first ever equipped with nose-turrets.

10/31/2006: German naturalist and scientist Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuwied, long dreamed of discovering new species of plants and animals in the New World. His companion was a young Swiss artist, Karl Bodmer, who died on October 30, 1893.

11/1/2006: Arizona has the Grand Canyon, Colorado has the Rocky Mountains, but the Ward County Independent reported that North Dakota has the Royal Gorge. The paper wasn’t talking about a geographic feature, but rather, a person. That person was Queen Marie of Romania and she visited North Dakota today in 1926.

11/7/2006: Perhaps our tenth governor, John Burke was not as well-known as Abraham Lincoln, but the two share a similar incident that earned them the same sobriquet. As many may already know, Lincoln became known as Honest Abe when he repaid his debts after his store went bankrupt; what few may know is that although Burke had long been known as Honest John because of his candor in business dealings, a business venture similar to Lincoln’s, which would only reinforce his honest character.

11/8/2006: When Emmons County commissioner Henry Van Beck showed up at Inspector John Miller’s house, he was hoping to get the best of some political opponents before the county elections held today in 1892. Little did he know, Miller and the Russian-German settlement would get the best of him.

11/9/2006: Sometimes the truth hurts, and even offends, but that didn’t stop Sam Clark and C.H. Crockard, publishers of Jim Jam Jems from writing the truth in a blatant manner.

11/10/2006: They were men who could fly a hundred feet across the plains of North Dakota, and all they needed to do so was a steep slope, a proper landing place, and their two wooden skis. Through the 1920s and 30s, these ski jumpers were North Dakota heroes, and many of them helped North Dakota, a state with no mountains and few hills, turn into a ski jumping center.

6/17/2006: On June 17, 1867, Brevet Major George H. Crosman, commanding a battalion of the 10th US Infantry, arrived at the newly established Fort Ransom. Crosman later described life at the fort in a letter:

6/22/2006: Train wrecks are certainly problematic, but when a circus train carrying performers, tents, equipment, and animals is involved, the word problematic seems slightly insufficient to describe the chaotic scene. Such a scene was to be found near Medina, North Dakota on this day in 1908 when a Gollmar Brothers Circus train collided head-on with a light engine locomotive traveling at thirty miles per hour. Amazingly, the only fatalities that resulted were restricted to animals traveling with the cars.

6/28/2006: North Dakota has had its share of royal guests, but few people know that a member of the Swedish royal family was once arrested by officials in Schurmeier, North Dakota; or at least a self-declared member of the royal family. A man claiming himself to be the Crown Prince of Sweden was reported to be roaming the countryside around Grand Forks by the Fargo Forum on this day in 1911. The man was picked up by authorities and placed in the Grand Forks county jail until a decision could be made on his state of mind.