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6/9/2004: On this date in 1859, Anson Northrup’s steamboat arrived at Fort Garry, in present-day Manitoba, and residents celebrated with both thanksgiving and gunpowder. It was the first time a boat had successfully navigated the Red River, and commerce there would be changed forever.

6/12/2004: In the extreme northwest corner of the state, near Grenora, are two huge granite boulders covered with extraordinary examples of pictographic writing, a form of communication often used by peoples who otherwise had no written language.

6/13/2004: One of Abraham Lincoln’s personal bodyguards was Smith Stimmel, who later practiced law in North Dakota. In his book, “Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln,” he wrote that the president’s hat was always dented and messed up. One evening he learned why.

6/17/2004: Today is the beginning of a four-day Ft. Union historical rendezvous, an annual event celebrating the history of the fur trade, early exploration, and the peaceful relations that existed between Ft. Union traders and the tribes of the Upper Missouri region in the early to mid-1800s. The event will end Sunday, on the anniversary of the fort being designated a National Historic Site in 1966.

6/20/2004: Teddy Roosevelt was a man who cherished family life, so it was fitting for the State Historical Society of North Dakota to choose Father’s Day 2001 for hosting a family-style barbecue in Roosevelt’s honor at the North Dakota Heritage Center.

7/19/2004: Today is the birthday of Georg Hildebrandt, who was born in 1911 in a German village in the Ukraine. In 1993, Hildebrandt’s book, “ Why Are You Still Alive? A German in the Gulag ,” was published in the German language. A German reviewer wrote, “ Why are you still alive? That is the cynical question of a KGB officer to the author... His fate, which one could avoid only by escape or suicide, represents that of thousands of fellow-sufferers. Imaginative, sympathetic readers should have strong nerves for this book.”

10/11/2003: On October 11, 1881, a homesteader living in Hunter, North Dakota, took out a patent for camera film that would forever change the world of photography. The inventor, David Henderson Houston, was to become a major player in the Kodak empire.

10/14/2003:

10/21/2003: Kenmare has identified with geese for decades; their school mascot is a snow goose, and their sports teams are called the Honkers.

10/28/2003: North Dakota has the distinction of having had the first governor to ever be recalled, but the person who took away his job in the recall election is little known today.