3/16/2011:
If you were listening yesterday, you heard the arguments facing North Dakotans who were both for and against moving the capital city to Jamestown after the capitol building in Bismarck burned down in 1930. On March 15, 1932, a special vote deciding the issue was included in the presidential primary election.
It was a huge topic in the state, with people on both sides. The Bismarck Capital Defense Committee even issued a clarification on the language of the bill prior to the election. Because of the nature of the bill, including an amendment to the constitution, all other state institutions, such as schools and other buildings, were listed in the wording. The Committee verified that the bill was only referring to the capital moving, and it would not mean other institutions would be move.
After the election, voters learned that Bismarck won in a landslide. Returns from 304 of the 2,235 precincts in the state on this date showed that the vote to keep the capital at Bismarck was 42,399 to 7,894.
It was reported that “from the Red River Valley on the east to the Montana border on the west came a swelling chorus of ‘No’ which defeated the removal proposal by the heaviest margin ever recorded in the history of North Dakota elections.”
As may be expected, the vote from Bismarck was “99.69 percent pure” in its vote to retain the capital, and Jamestown was overwhelmingly for the change.
So in the end, Bismarck kept the capital, and the cornerstone for the new state capitol building was laid that fall. This would become North Dakota’s “skyscraper of the prairie.” It still stands tall today at 241 feet, 8 inches. But it did not go up without some controversy. Workers who built it under the Works Progress Administration went on strike in 1933 seeking to raise their hourly fee of 30 cents to 50 cents. As a result of this, the capital city was even under martial law for a short amount of time.
The Capitol was completed in 1934 and has been a fixture of Bismarck’s landscape ever since.
Dakota Datebook by Sarah Walker
Sources:
http://www.webfamilytree.com/North_Dakota_Place_Names/B/bismarck_%28burleigh_county%29.htm – Doug Wick
Adams County Record, March 10, 1932
The Steele Ozone and Kidder County Farmers Press, March 17, 1932
Adams County Record, March 3, 1932
http://www.nd.gov/fac/historyinfo/history.html
http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-Midwest/Bismarck-History.html