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8/18/2004: Today is the birthday of one more North Dakota hero who is largely unknown here at home. Born in 1958, Dean Kutz grew up in Carrington and went on to become one of the finest horseracing jockeys in America, with more than 2,800 career victories.

8/20/2004: By the 1890s, Stump Lake in northeast North Dakota was a Mecca for waterfowl hunters, and a magnificent 3-story hotel called the Wamduska House provided room and board to hunters from as far away as New York City. Oologists, too, found the area ripe for the picking. What’s an oologist, you ask? That’s a person who collects birds’ eggs – or used to, anyway.

8/25/2004: Many a North Dakota farmer has helplessly watched a promising crop get hailed out.

8/28/2004: Theodore Roosevelt established the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge on this date in 1908. The refuge encompasses 4,385 acres northwest of Medina and is one of state’s largest surviving blocks of native prairie. As a wilderness area, no motor vehicles and no roads are allowed, leaving the area almost identical to pre-settlement days. The refuge is home to at least 230 bird species (some of them rare), 35 species of butterflies and untold numbers of wildflowers.

9/2/2004: The Bisbee Gazette published a story about an event that took place, on this date in 1911, titled “Finlander on the Warpath.” The article read, “Saturday evening a bunch of Finlanders loaded up on snoose and Hofman drop and then started in to carve each other in the usual way among those fellows. The affray took place in the alley in back of the telephone central office about ten o’clock in the evening and came near ending fatally for one of the participants. One fellow had several gashes cut about his head and neck,” the story read, “(with) one being within a half inch of the jugular vein. Nightwatch Hanlon happened to be near when the affair started and soon had the knife artist under arrest.”

9/9/2004: In response to a number of baseball teams being cut from the major leagues, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Manitoba formed the Northern League in 1902. Also included were a team from Iowa City and one from Ontario.

9/23/2004: Stefan Popiel was born in 1907 and grew up in the city of Lviv in former eastern Poland. In 1931, he earned a masters degree in French and Latin language and literature from the University in Lviv. He also acted Archbishop Andrew Sheptitsky’s personal secretary until 1944.

9/27/2004: Today would have been the 100th birthday of Dr. Robert Henry Bahmer, who died in 1990. Dr. Bahmer was the United States Archivist from 1966 to 1969, and he also directed the Presidential Libraries of Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1970, Bahmer’s accomplishment earned him North Dakota’s highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award.

10/1/2004: At about this time in 1902, railroad workers in the state had been going through a tough time with hobos riding the rails. On September 22nd, the Fargo Forum reported a story under the heading, “Another Brakeman Shot.” The incident had happened the previous Saturday night aboard a Northern Pacific stock train heading east. A number of hobos climbed onto the top of the train at Casselton, but they weren’t discovered until the train was underway. A crewmember went to a brakeman named Wilson for help, but by then, the hobos had disappeared.

10/5/2004: Many people believe that America and Canada have always been at peace with each other, but that’s not actually true. On this date in 1871, U.S. citizens invaded Canada by way of Pembina in what became known as the Fenian Invasion.