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10/2/2004: Credit for founding the town of Hazen is linked to two different people. Alexander or “Sandy” Roberts squatted on the location in the fall of 1882 and, two years later, he filed for a post office to be named Hazen. The U.S. government granted his request, and the following year, Hazen went on the map– even though it would be another 29 years before it became a town.

10/3/2004: The American Crystal Sugar Company began operating North Dakota’s first refinery – located near Drayton – on this date in 1965. Farmers in the Red River Valley experimented with sugar beets as far back as the 1870s, but without a processing plant nearby, beets proved a poor venture.

10/8/2004: In October 1913, the following ad was in the local papers: Wanted! Perfectly healthy men and women who will voluntarily submit to an experiment which may lead to temporary or permanent impairment of health, or possible death. This experiment to be conducted with the coffee drug, “caffeine.” Following that, in bold letters, it read: Would You Apply for the Job?

10/10/2004: UND’s Volcano World is said to be one of the best source of volcano information on the Web. No volcanoes are listed under North Dakota, but many layers of volcanic ash accumulated across the state during the formation of the Rocky Mountains.

10/13/2004: Today is the birthday of historian Elwyn Robinson; many Dakota Datebook segments have been helped along because of his exceptional research.

10/18/2004: The Long X Ranch is the largest and, possibly, the most historic cattle ranch in McKenzie County. The original ranch site was on Squaw Creek, southwest of Watford City, near the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

10/19/2004: On this date in 1890, the "Fargo Sunday Argus" published two different stories about William Thornton Montgomery and his brother, Isaiah. William’s story was a biographical sketch about his move to North Dakota. Isaiah’s story covered a lengthy speech he delivered during the Mississippi Constitutional Convention in 1890. Isaiah was the only black delegate, and his speech was so eloquent, that the "New York World" printed it verbatim. So did the "Fargo Argus."

10/20/2004: Yesterday, we brought you part one of the William Thornton Montgomery story. William, better known as Thornton, was born into slavery in 1843 on the Joseph Davis plantation in Mississippi; Thornton’s father was educated and was Joe Davis’s personal business manager. After the Civil War, the Montgomery men purchased the plantation, along with Brierfield, which belonged to Joe Davis’s brother, Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President. The Montgomery men were highly regarded and were leaders during the chaos that followed the end of the war.

10/28/2004: Today we bring you part four of our series on the role of North Dakota’s 164th Infantry Regiment at Guadalcanal in the fall of 1942. Between October 25th and 29th, the 164th fought alongside the 1st Marine Division to protect a critical airstrip called Henderson Field. After the fierce battle on the night of the 25th, the 3rd Battalion of the 164th took up positions separate from the Marines. The 2nd Battalion took a position on the flank, and the 1st Battalion prepared to meet thousands of enemy troops streaming out of the mountains from the south.

10/31/2004: Today we bring you a story of a strange craft reported in a 1914 Hansboro newspaper article titled, “AIRSHIP NEAR HANSBORO: Traveling East It Is Seen By Several Farmers and Threshing Crew North Of Town.”