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11/21/2012: Fort Buford was situated on the frontier near the junction of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. It was built in 1866 close to the old fur trading post of Fort Union and was relegated to the duty of protecting settlers and gold seekers on their way to Montana. Throughout the late spring and early summer, steamboats braved the dangerous waters of the Missouri to carry supplies for the garrisons at the fort and points beyond. However, by late summer, the water levels fell and steamboat traffic came to an end.

9/19/2012: On this date in 1905, Morton County was hosting a county fair. It was a successful event, and though not backed by the state, a Mandan newspaper proudly proclaimed, “it has now been demonstrated that there is nothing sacred about the name ‘State Fair,’ but that a fair can be made to succeed in Mandan, even if it is only a county affair, and has not the name of the State of North Dakota to conjure with.”

9/25/2012: With the end of the Minnesota Uprising and the establishment of reservations, wary settlers began making their way to the Red River of the North. The Civil War had ended, and landlocked farmers in the East were looking toward the West to start a new life. In 1872 the Northern Pacific Railroad crossed the river at Fargo, and settlers, encouraged by the Homestead Law, began pouring into the newly opened lands, and settlements began springing up along the line.

11/5/2012: In 1855, St. Charles, Missouri was the gateway to the Missouri River, and it held the promise of adventure to an eighteen year old coming west from Vermont. Born on this date in 1837, Carroll Jones Atkins left a thirty-dollar-a-year job as a farm laborer and headed out to seek his fortune. After working a few menial jobs, Atkins learned the trade of a pilot on the St. Charles Ferry line, but his attention was soon focused on the steamboats that plied the Mighty Missouri from St. Charles to Fort Benton in Montana Territory.

11/6/2012: When Agassiz Elementary School opened a hundred years ago in Fargo, it was not without controversy. Located on Eighth Avenue South across the street from a corn field, some felt it was too far out in the country. Others were outraged that the $110,000 cost was three times the original estimate.

11/10/2012: During the summer of 1935, the citizens of Bismarck and the rest of North Dakota were startled to discover that among the canned goods they were familiar with, such as tomato juice, vegetables or fruit, they would soon be able to find beer in a can.

11/1/2012: In 1918, as war was raging in Europe, another war was raging on the home front to curb a deadly epidemic of the Spanish Flu. A milder, less aggressive form of flu had occurred the year before, taking a number of lives, but the Spanish Flu was a particularly deadly mutation that took over 1,300 lives in North Dakota and millions of lives worldwide.

11/7/2012: In November of 1883, the new capitol building was beginning to tower heavenward. Under the watchful eye of Superintendent John Wright, the brick face and the stone columns were being completed through the second floor. The dome and outer wall were approaching the third floor, and it was promised by Mr. Wright that the building would be enclosed by winter.

11/4/2012: On this date in 1904, the Wizard of Oz came to Fargo.

11/25/2013: In 1888, the days of the Wild West were passing in Dakota Territory. This was manifested in the fact that the number of churches per capita was catching up to the number of saloons in the eastern part of the Territory. Even the frontier editors had moved westward, more interested in finding a new source of homestead proofs to publish than eking out a living selling advertising and publishing the local gossip. The adventurers, the track followers and the gamblers had also moved on is search of easier pickings at the end of the track or in the mining camps of Montana.