7/14/2011:
The people of New Town knew how to make the best out of a situation. They formed the city by combining the forces of Sanish, Van Hook and Elbowoods, after it was learned that the Garrison Dam project would flood those communities. By 1953, New Town was populated and development continued.
The people thrived in their new city with a variety of business and enterprise. And on this date in 1956, amidst great pomp and circumstance, Robert Box’s new business in New Town, the Dakota Boat Factory, was dedicated. He was set up in a three-story building – the old Snyder Hotel that had been moved from Sanish.
This factory was special for many reasons—and not just because it stood in the middle of the continent in a land-locked state. There was actually plenty of water around, especially with the Garrison Dam giving rise to Lake Sakagawea. Consequently, New Town was deemed a perfect place for a boat factory. In fact, it was the New Town Industrial Corporation that asked Box to establish his business in New Town, instead of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He accepted, and with their assistance, set up shop.
Not only did the factory employ a handful of people, but Box said it could kick out a boat a day. The factory had been in operation for about a month before its dedication, and had already produced 25 boats, with round bottoms, and ranging from 14 to 18 feet in length. The boats were built from cedar strips fastened to white oak steam-bent ribs and were covered with leak-proof fiberglass cloth.
Governor Brunsdale, who was at the dedication, welcomed new business, saying, “We can expect sizeable new enterprises to come in when we begin developing our natural resources.”
Those natural resources and the available man-power prompted Bundsale to predict that “within the next ten years a lot fewer young people will be leaving the state; they’ll be working in North Dakota industries.”
Afterward, to top off the day, Box gave Governor Brunsdale and other officials a boat ride around the Four Bears Bridge.
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
The Minot Daily News, Monday, July 16, 1956,p1
Tales of Mighty Mountrail, Vol. 1, p177-179