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6/2/2011: Summer brings thunderstorms to North Dakota and June days can harbor erratic weather. At least once every summer especially powerful thunderheads roll over the plains and prairies. Some storms give the air an eerie greenish tinge before the thunder and the rain arrive. Black clouds give warning to seek shelter.

6/6/2011: The University of North Dakota has a long tradition of excellence in the theater arts dating back one hundred years. When the Sock and Buskin Society was created in January of 1911, their productions were performed in whatever space was available. By 1914 the production of historical pageants became a trend in American theaters and this would lead to a summertime home for the group.

6/7/2011: On this date in 1959, John Gehring was able to try out his new gift.

6/10/2011: If you were listening yesterday, you learned about Calamity Joe, or Joseph Meyer, who lived and occasionally raised Cain in the Wild West.

6/13/2011: “Of all the variable things in creation the most uncertain are the action of a jury, the state of woman’s mind, and the condition of the Missouri River.” Sioux City Register, March 28, 1868

6/15/2011: With the Missouri river on the rise and Bismarck/Mandan, Minot and Devils Lake areas in flood stages, and strange weather reports around the country, the addition of rain becomes a mix of blessings and curse.

6/17/2011: Although Theodore Roosevelt’s time in Dakota was short, the territory nonetheless left a distinct mark on the future president. His vigorous life in Dakota taught the sickly easterner the value of a hard day’s work and the inherent worth of even a common laborer. Roosevelt’s experiences in the Dakota Badlands did more than undermine the social elitism of his wealthy East Coast past – it dramatized the beauty of the American West and the need to care for and preserve the land.

6/21/2011: With the start of summer today, the vacation season begins in earnest, a season the state tourism board has aptly encapsulated in one word – Legendary. North Dakota’s tourism motto unites the state’s modern vacation offerings with the figures of the state’s storied past; like Lewis and Clark, Sitting Bull and Theodore Roosevelt.

6/22/2011: The first recorded baptisms in North Dakota took place on this date in 1840. Father Christian Hoecken, a Roman Catholic missionary priest from Holland, performed seven baptisms at Fort Clark, near present-day Bismarck. Although earlier baptisms may have occurred at the Red River settlement of Pembina, those records did not survive the Hudson Bay Company’s abandonment of the site in the 1820s.

7/11/2011: No lake in North Dakota reflects more mystery than Devils Lake. With waters 25 miles long and 5 miles wide, Devils Lake is massive and it keeps growing. The Indian name for Devils Lake was “Minnewaukan,” meaning “mysterious water.”