1/26/2007:
North Dakota faced a severe coal shortage on this day in 1907. Valley City authorities reported that citizens were to supply themselves with candles and kerosene lamps as the electric plant had only enough coal for an additional three days of service. At that time, the lights in the city would be shut off in order to maintain the water supply and fire protection. Valley City schools and courthouse were able to remain open by securing and dividing a carload of coal from the railroad.
All over the state, cities struggled to stay warm and maintain basic services in light of the shortage. The shortage itself was caused by the harsh winter, in which massive amounts of snow fell causing the blockage of most railways and roads. The citizens of Crary, North Dakota divided the entire city’s coal supply on January 9, and days later were completely out of fuel. For three weeks, the town’s one-hundred and fifty residents struggled through the freezing weather until Superintendent Nicholson of the Great Northern Railroad secured a load of coal for the city. Jamestown’s State Asylum faced a similar predicament and “...[ran] on a close margin all winter in the matter of fuel.”
Officials of the asylum sent M. Sinclair first to Bismarck, and then to Dickinson on nearly impassible roads in order to find additional supplies of the fuel.
On January 30, the citizens of New Rockford sent a telegram to the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, D.C. addressing the fuel situation and the railroad’s efforts. New Rockford residents claimed that “the railroad [was] not making any effort to relieve [them]” and that “...the fuel situation there [was] so desperate that the people [would] burn railroad property in less than forty-eight hours for fuel." President Elliot of the Northern Pacific Railroad quickly responded to the telegram, saying that “snow and storms have been so great that trains have been stuck and snow plows damaged in trying to get through the heavy drifts”. He added, “Our people are doing everything that can be done...” Two days later, several cars loaded with coal could be seen speeding westward through Fargo on their way to relieving the central areas of the state.
Sources:
The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican (Evening ed.). January 31, 1907: p. 1.
The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican (Evening ed.). February 1, 1907: p. 1, 5, 8.
--Jayme L. Job