Beach

North Dakota’s coal mines were dangerous places a century ago, when blasts and equipment accidents could be fatal. The industry had swelled in North Dakota in the 1910s. In 1920, the state had 116 mines, most of them underground. They produced nearly 879,000 tons of coal, worth more than $2.1 million. That would be more than $33 million in today’s dollars.

North Dakota has a long and unfortunate history of prairie fires. In 1804 Lewis and Clark recorded a prairie fire that resulted in fatalities. Clark wrote…