1/7/2012:
A news story on this date in 1982 involved a petition by a New Salem area farmer to fix what he called the North Dakota time zone problem. Ray Olin wanted to start a petition that called for the whole state to be on Central Time. Olin claimed that the division of the state into two separate time zones created an unnecessary nuisance and should be done away with. Since the Missouri River marked the boundary, the river’s diagonal course was such that Dickinson was an hour behind Fargo, but Williston, further west than Dickinson, was in the same time zone as Fargo. Olin believed that farmers would back the measure if the state would also eliminate daylight savings, which Arizona and Indiana had done. Needless to say, Olin’s referendum never passed, and it’s still noon in Dickinson when it’s 1:00 in Fargo today.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job
Sources:
The Forum. Thursday, January 7, 1982: p. 15.