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9/29/2012: On this date in 1911, the local newspaper reported that two men there were arrested for fighting on Park Avenue in Sykeston, North Dakota.

10/6/2012: Was evidence of a paleo-dentist found in eastern Dunn County on this date in 1936? Probably not, but Walter Burgess was in Killdeer exhibiting a large tooth he found in a gravel pit fifteen miles south of Dodge. The tooth weighed four pounds, was five inches high and fourteen inches around. The biting surface was two and a half inches wide and four inches long.

10/9/2012: Infamous escape artist and murderer Richard Lee McNair escaped along with two other inmates from the North Dakota State Penitentiary at Bismarck on this date in 1992. The escape was the second of three.

10/8/2012: By 1899 the City of Mandan had quieted down considerably from the days when the soldiers from Fort Abraham Lincoln, as well as the Texas cowboys, fresh from trailing their herds, had livened up the town. But on this date in 1899, the authorities were pondering the fate of a naive cowboy who had brought a touch of the Wild West back to the community.

10/11/2012: After the retreat of the glaciers, the central plains of North America became an ocean of grass. Each year the warm spring rains brought the dormant sod back to life and gentle summer breezes created green waves of grass that appeared to flow across the landscape. But in the semi-arid climate of the Northern Plains, by mid July the rains would stop and the long green blades browned in the hot sun.

10/12/2012: North Dakota is well known for its wheat production. In 2012 alone, North Dakota farmers harvested 7,760,000 acres of wheat – only Kansas had more acreage. Measured in bushels, North Dakota’s total wheat harvest was 339 million bushels! Now, that’s a lot of work—and a lot of wheat. Soon to be a lot of flour!

10/13/2012: Commercial and public radio stations in North Dakota began operating in 1922 when WDAY obtained its license in May of that year and KFJM began broadcasting at the University of North Dakota in October.

10/14/2012: Unlike our more sedentary younger population today, North Dakota children of the 1930s got plenty of exercise helping with the farm work – and most activities were carried on outdoors. But in the era before modern medicine, namely penicillin and other wonder drugs, there were many health dangers lurking.

10/23/2012: Even though North Dakota has one of the smallest populations in the United States, it has produced at least nine aces – fighter pilots with five or more confirmed combat kills. Most are incredible stories of daring and skill over weeks or months of dangerous combat. But that was not the case for North Dakota native Captain Laurence “Scrappy” Blumer. He shot down five German fighters in only fifteen minutes; earning him the title “Fastest Ace in a Day.”

10/24/2012: On this date in 1918, manager T. J. Ahearn from the Jamestown Gas Company was surely licking some very real wounds he received on the job. It all started with the gas in the Northern Pacific depot lunch room. It had been turned off, but a leak was still apparent. He discovered that a plug in a one-inch gas pipe had been removed, with gas flowing into the basement.