2/10/2013:
The Bank of North Dakota announced in the State Legislature that it was unable to meet the state’s payroll on this date in 1921. Checks issued to all state, county, and local employees could not be cashed or honored. Unlike the prosperous industrial areas of the country, agriculturally-dependent North Dakota faced a growing financial crisis. Farm prices had plummeted; wheat alone dropped from $3 a bushel to 92 cents. One in five farmers in the state would give up farming by 1923, and President Coolidge refused to pass any farm bills to alleviate the situation. The Bank of North Dakota was forced to collect all outstanding debts, leading to bank and farm foreclosures. Nowhere did the Roaring 20s roar more quietly than within North Dakota.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job
Sources:
Dill, Joseph (ed.). 1988 North Dakota: 100 Years: p. 28. The Forum Publishing Company: Fargo, ND.
The Forum and Daily Republican. Friday (Evening ed.), February 11, 1921; XLIII(73): p. 1.