Jamestown

On this date in 1896, the Jamestown paper reported Mrs. Swain had been taken home to New Rockford for burial. She and her lover were found dead in a Valley City hotel room. A note left at the scene said, "You will find sufficient funds in my pocketbook to bury us. Our last request is to bury us together without any fuss, and do not try to find out who we are. Parted in life but joined in death."

Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Being a landlocked state, North Dakota does not have an extensive pirate history. However, many years ago, there were rumors of pirate treasure.

1879 was a good year to purchase land in Dakota Territory. The Northern Pacific Railroad had gone bankrupt. The company was money poor but land rich, so it was selling land to raise funds for extending its railroad line. Land could be had for as little as fifteen cents per acre.

In 1962, the North Dakota State Highway Department, as it was known then, installed a radio site west of Merricourt, North Dakota. Merricourt is south of Jamestown, about 20 miles from the South Dakota border. The town’s peak population hit 153 in the 1940s. Now, it’s mostly gone, but not forgotten.

Heated moments and hostile politics have often gripped North Dakota’s Legislature. In 1890, the state’s first legislative session included the censure of two senators for insults. One of them was replaced as president pro tempore.

Jamestown College opened on this date in 1886. The newly created college began its first fall term at 9:00 am in the North Side School House. Although the college initially had only one student, Ms. Sadie Elliott, it would end the year with a class of 35.

North Dakotans took many steps to fight the 1918 flu pandemic. Bismarck had a mask mandate for waitresses and other food handlers. Schools and businesses around the state closed – some for months. There was even a vaccine, though it turned out to be useless.

North Dakota is small and sparsely populated, but it has drawn a range of music acts over the years, some of them multiple times, with memorable shows. Some of those concerts have had attendance larger than some of North Dakota’s major cities.

The Legislature has approved the budget bill for the state Commerce Department, after lawmakers rejected a proposal for a one-time $5 million grant for a…

This Sunday is Alf Clausen’s birthday. He was born in 1941 and grew up in Jamestown. In school he played piano and French horn and sang in the choir. But…