Dr. Steve Hoffbeck

How many times have you seen the Northern Lights in the nighttime sky? It has been reported that it was more common to see the them in North Dakota back in the 1880s. For example, on this date in 1887, the Griggs County [Cooperstown] Courier reported: “The aurora borealis or northern lights were beautifully visible in the northern skies on Monday night.”

When motorists drive along U.S. Highway 2 in Grand Forks, they may see flowing clouds of steam rising from a factory. The steamy clouds carry an aroma of cooked potatoes. What magic is happening behind those factory walls?

Modern-day people usually don’t know much about oxen, unless they refer to someone as a “big ox,” or being “strong as an ox.” Some might know about Red River oxcarts or maybe Babe the Blue Ox’s statue in Bemidji.

In the deep past, a bamboo cane pole was every kid’s “starter” rod, an introduction to the lifetime sport of fishing. Little line-tangling, lots of panfish nibbling, much bobber-watching – all the delights of angling. On this date, in 1903, an article in the Cooperstown Courier compared the qualities of a cane-pole made of bamboo, imported from Japan, to those of an old-fashioned wooden pole made of hickory, ash, hazel or willow.

If you drop a silver quarter onto a hard tabletop, a pure metallic ringing will arise, pleasant to the ear, a brilliant tone. Where have all the silver…

The Cannonball River got its name from the stones found in its waters and along its banks that are so round and smooth that they “greatly resemble cannon…

A silk crisis came to America in the summer of 1941. That was the time when Japanese military-forces took total control over French Indochina, and the…

If you have ears to hear lively music, you know the almost-magnetic attraction of ragtime.Ragtime has syncopation. It has energy, it has off-beat notes,…

The ski industry in North Dakota has experienced many “ups and downs.” Currently, there are three ski-areas in the state – Huff Hills near Mandan;…

Emma Kelly was quite an adventurous person, for she was among the first women to endure the extreme conditions of the Alaskan-Klondike gold-rush in 1897.…