DAKOTA DATEBOOK: The Groundhog and His Shadow
February 2: As the calendar turned the page from 1940 to 1941, there was more than enough bad news in the papers. The front page of the Fargo Forum reported on the fighting in Europe, and the predictions were bleak. It seemed as if the countries of the world were falling like dominoes before the German Army. And Great Britain was fearful of worsening air attacks.
North Dakotans were aware of the fighting, and concerned for what the future would bring, but there was also positive news as folks were still able to take some joy amid the winter weather.
On this date in 1941, the groundhog saw his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter, but rather than dwell on the length of the winter, plans were in the works for some fun. The Fargo Forum reported that the American Legion post was sponsoring a special 11-car Northern Pacific train to take almost 300 people to the winter carnival in St. Paul. Another eight-car Great Northern train would carry 100 to the event.
For those who did not want to venture to Minnesota, there was plenty to do in North Dakota. Wahpeton’s sixth annual winter festival featured 26 members of the new figure skating club in an exhibition and a competition. They were joined by members of the Fargo skating club. The Wahpeton Independents hockey team held a game against a team from Fergus Falls, and a snowman-building contest was scheduled. The city had collected Christmas trees and planned to burn them in an evening bonfire.
In Enderlin, residents gathered for a hobby show attended by more than 500 people. Exhibits included carvings, paintings, ceramics, and a stamp collection. Local students provided music and performed a play.
Fargo citizens attended an event called “Get to Know Your Hockey,” featuring a game at the Fargo Arena. The program was designed to promote the game of hockey, and cards explaining the rules were passed out to the audience. Ladies were admitted free, and gentlemen were encouraged to bring their wives or girlfriends with the promise that the action would surely give them a thrill.
The groundhog may have seen his shadow, and world headlines may have been grim, but that did not stop the hearty residents of North Dakota from enjoying winter in 1941.
Dakota Datebook Written by Carole Butcher
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Free Coal for Needy Families in Grand Forks, 1921
February 3: Winter in North Dakota is not for the faint of heart, for blasts of Arctic cold can freeze your nose or your toes. Sub-zero temperatures in January and February have always posed a challenge to homeowners, with the poorest residents of North Dakota facing the greatest challenge in paying to heat their homes. Today’s Dakota Datebook tells how the people of Grand Forks provided assistance to its neediest citizens back in the 1920s, and how a coal-mining company helped out.
It was on this date in 1921 that the Grand Forks Herald reported that city officials had helped 52 families in the month of January with “supplies of various kinds.” The county had a “poor fund” that gave assistance by various means, providing groceries, clothing, heating fuel, rent money, hospital care, or medicines, and the city had an Overseer of the Poor, Mrs. Edith M. Pierce, to determine who was eligible for the assistance.
Among the families who needed help were 19 widows with children, 22 cases of sickness, 11 cases of lack of employment, and three homeless children. Additionally, Mrs. Pierce was able to help 35 families with heating assistance in the form of coal from the western part of the state.
Each of the 35 families got “a ton of coal” delivered to their home, free of charge, courtesy of the Whittier-Crockett Coal Company from their big coalmine located near the town of Columbus, right next to the Canadian border.
The Whittier-Crockett Coal Company owned the largest strip mine in Northwestern North Dakota, and the company’s president, H.A. Whittier, established a tradition of sending coal to several cities in the state. Whittier called the gift a “thanksgiving offering” to Dakotans because his company had “enjoyed very liberal patronage” throughout North Dakota and he wished to give something back to its poorest citizens.
Grand Forks got a traincar-load, as did Fargo, Devils Lake, and Minot. Each railway car contained 35 tons of “screened lump lignite” coal. The Great Northern Railway shipped the cargo for free.
Red Cross volunteers delivered the coal to the families, using wagons owned by the city. Those tons of free coal warmed hearts and homes that cold mid-winter of 1921.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Bismarck’s Lyceum Meetings
February 4: For middle-aged adults, the word “lyceum” might be remembered as having a guest speaker deliver a lecture in the public school auditorium. But in the 1800s, the term referred to a form of community education in which neighbors shared their personal expertise in literature, fine arts, and music; or it could feature a debate or readings and recitations. The lyceum meetings served as social events, too, as a pleasurable way to gather together on a regular basis.
The citizens of Bismarck, seeking to uplift, educate, and entertain each other organized a lyceum group in the early 1880s, looking for a way to enliven winter evenings, providing a night full of “entertainment, instruction, amusement, hilarity, fun, frolic and joy.”
On this date in 1881, the Bismarck Tribune declared that the local Lyceum Association was “an established fact,” for the group’s leadership had set up programs and committees and were ready to draft a constitution and establish their by-laws.
The Bismarck organization used the local Methodist Church, and one of the first debate topics pondered whether “the statesman or the warrior” was most beneficial to the U.S., with the judges deciding in favor of the statesman.
No lyceums were held that summer, for there were plenty of other things to do, but weekly lyceum meetings began again that autumn. A November topic was particularly fascinating, exploring whether “intemperance is more destructive than war.” The debate ensued over alcoholism versus battlefield casualties, with the verdict that alcoholism was worse.
Month by month, local debaters examined questions such as: Should the telegraph system of the U.S. be under the control of the government? And which has done the most good for the nation – the printing press or the steam engine?
All of the lyceum meetings were exciting and entertaining because of the opinions expressed and the colorful personalities who did the speaking. Colonel Thompson was said to deliver “eloquent and stirring speeches.” The school principal, Mr. Logan, was inspirational while reciting “Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight.”
The meetings were so enjoyable, partly because “music was interspersed” with the readings and debates. Songs and laughter echoed throughout the Lyceum Nights, bringing cultural refinement to the rough-and-tumble railroad town of Bismarck in 1881.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Smallpox in Fargo
February 5: A smallpox epidemic in Fargo, Dakota Territory, forced drastic actions in 1883. On this date that year, Fargo Mayor William A. Kindred was given the authority by the city council to take measures to fight the outbreak. He set up a hospital, ordered the burning of clothing, and required doctors to report smallpox cases.
The smallpox outbreaks struck Fargo from 1881 to 1883. The city council voted in the fall of 1881 for vaccinations and for barring infected persons from “smallpox districts” from coming into town. The Fargo Medical Society petitioned the city council in 1882 for further action on the disease, and in the spring of that year, the city paid Dr. Edward Darrow $50 for vaccinations.
On this date in 1883, Darrow also became Fargo’s city health officer. He had come to Dakota Territory from Wisconsin in the spring of 1878. He set up his practice in Fargo and became the territory’s first superintendent of health. He was also North Dakota’s surgeon general from 1890 to 1892.
Various residents also pitched in, making their homes available as smallpox hospitals to quarantine patients. The city council paid to maintain these “smallpox houses,” even paying the grocery bills. M.R. Knowles was reimbursed $17.50 for the groceries at his “smallpox house.”
And smallpox wasn’t the only disease problem in Fargo that year. Diphtheria and scarlet fever also broke out, with the city continuing to pay “pest house” bills and even damages for homes and goods affected by the disease. The smallpox apparently spread to Minnesota too. State health officials telegraphed each other, agreeing that a Brainerd resident visiting Duluth had contracted smallpox in Fargo.
Epidemics were common in Fargo’s early years. Disease outbreaks led to the city creating its health board, improving water and sewer systems, and establishing dump grounds. Smallpox, typhoid fever, scarlet fever and diphtheria came and went into the 20th century. Despite sanitation improvements and mass vaccinations, smallpox continued as a serious health issue in Fargo as late as 1905.
Dakota Datebook written by Jack Dura
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Unusual Marriage
February 6: At the end of January in 1929, a rather unusual marriage for two residents of Tappen took place in Steele. The reports circulated around the state: Gertrude Murdoch, the 27-year-old principal and music teacher of the local high school, married Gordon Bell, a 17-year-old sophomore in her school and a student in one of her classes.
At age seventeen, Gordon was considered a minor by four years. Had their roles been reversed, and he was 27, marrying a 17-year-old girl, she would have been a minor by one year. In any case, because he was a minor, Gordon’s parents had to grant permission for him to marry. They stood by his side as he married his principal. Gertrude had her brother Alex as a witness.
The marriage took place in Steele, and after a short honeymoon, they returned to classes on this date as the Tappen school board had “given Mrs. Bell permission to keep her husband in her classes” and to “retain her as principal.”
According to the Bismarck Tribune, Dr. J.S. Whitson, a doctor in Tappen, was a friend of the couple, and said that “young Bell will finish high school and then go to college.” Other reports flying across the state said the young couple was staying at the Whitson home, but the doctor disputed the claim, noting that his family was out of town and he was simply staying at the same hotel as Mrs. Bell and the other teachers of Tappen school, a situation that “was probably responsible for the error.”
It was perhaps something of a scandal, but it might have been topped by a similar story that appeared in the Tribune the same day: two Renville County farm couples divorced, then traveled to Manitoba where they swapped spouses and were married in a double ceremony!
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: North Dakota Gives Town Back to Montana
February 9: On this date in 1966, word came from Bismarck that a North Dakota town was going to be given back to Montana.
At the time, Westby was a town of about 300 people. The residents were used to thinking they were from Montana, but between 1963 and 1966, the official state map of North Dakota showed it as belonging to North Dakota. Montana, however, maintained that Westby folks were still part of Big Sky country, and no emergency meetings were held.
The problem stemmed from out east – Minneapolis, to be exact. An official state “base map” is made for North Dakota about every 4 years. The firm that held the map-making contract was out of Valley City, but they sublet the contract to a firm in Minneapolis.
Douglas Walby, the chief draftsman for the North Dakota Highway Department, acknowledged the mistake, but said Westby wouldn’t be given back to Montana until 1967 when a new base map was made.
When State Travel Director, James Hawley, was asked about the seizure of the poor little town, he said, “We think Montana people are fine individuals. We’d like to add them to our population since we’re such a sparsely settled state, but we intend to give the town back to Montana next year.”
The town actually did begin as a North Dakota town – on July 1, 1910, to be precise. But then the railroad came along in 1913 and ran the rail line two miles outside of town. That didn’t make sense, so almost everybody moved closer to the tracks, and suddenly Westby was in Montana. Now, one needs to remember that the town was named Westby… West because it was so far west in the state. By all rights, if Montana intended to keep the town, they should have done the proper thing and renamed it Eastby. But Westby kept its name, and the old townsite became known as Old Westby.
As it turns out, the town actually belongs to both states. Some folks built their homes on the right side of the tracks – that would be the North Dakota side – and those residents are actually North Dakotans. But the post office is on the wrong side of the tracks, so everybody’s official address is Montana.
Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Dakota Recruitment
February 10: Dakota Territory was wilder than ever on this date in 1863 when acting governor John Hutchinson issued a recruitment order in response to the U.S.-Dakota War.
Hutchinson sought to recruit men to Company C of the Dakota Cavalry for protection of settlers. Over 600 white civilians and soldiers had been killed in the uprising in Minnesota the previous year (Dakota death counts are uncertain). At the time, Company A was the only unit of troops in the territory outside of Fort Randall, assigned to patrol the frontier from the Big Sioux River to Chouteau Creek.
The “extreme urgency” for government troops on the Dakota frontier was hard to meet. Hutchinson was unable to bring in outside troops owing to the ongoing Civil War. Territorial officials feared Dakota’s farming population would leave as the Sioux involved in the Minnesota actions moved into Dakota. Hutchinson’s predecessor had called for volunteers the previous fall, but he accepted none of the militias formed in the “slow and discouraging” recruitment process.
Recruiting the number of soldiers officials called for appeared impossible. Company B of the Dakota Cavalry had been thrown together at Sioux City, Iowa in December 1862, and that same month, the previous governor had created a consolidated Company C, but a need remained, and Hutchinson’s new recruitment order proved ineffective. Generals Alfred Sully and Henry Hastings Sibley eventually led their punitive expeditions with cavalries from Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.
Companies A and B of the Dakota Cavalry did play a small role, however. In 1864 they traveled as a bodyguard for Sully for a rendezvous near present-day Pierre, South Dakota, prior to the Battle of Tahkahokuty Mountain, also known as the Battle of Killdeer Mountain, the largest armed conflict between the U.S. Army and Plains Indians.
Dakota Datebook written by Jack Dura
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: General Alfred Terry
February 11: General Alfred Howe Terry was an experienced army officer, with extensive service during the Civil War. He was the military commander of Dakota Territory from 1866 to 1869 and again from 1872 to 1886. He became George Armstrong Custer’s commanding officer in 1873.
The 7th Cavalry had been posted to the Dakota Territory and was stationed at Fort Abraham Lincoln near Bismarck. Custer was already a celebrity, known as “the boy general” of the Civil War. In 1874, Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills. They confirmed the presence of gold, triggering a gold rush, but the land had been set aside for the Lakota. General Terry himself had helped negotiate the Fort Laramie Treaty that designated the Black Hills as Dakota land. He was reluctant to violate the treaty, but events overwhelmed him. He knew it would be impossible to stand up to the determined prospectors who came to the Black Hills seeking their fortunes.
After Custer’s adventure, Terry became a member of the Allison Committee, which tried to buy the Black Hills from the Lakota in 1875. The Lakota responded that the Black Hills were not for sale. In December, 1875 the Lakota were ordered to leave the Black Hills and return to reservations by the end of the following month. But they were in winter quarters, and it was not a realistic order. It would have been very difficult for them to make the move in December.
When the deadline passed without the submission of the Lakota, Terry knew he would have to authorize a campaign to force them out. On this date in 1876, General Terry moved against the Lakota. The lengthy campaign eventually ended in disaster with the massacre of the 7th Cavalry at Little Big Horn.
Dakota Territory was still under Terry’s command during the Nez Perce War in 1877. He sent General John Gibbon and Colonel Nelson Miles to intercept Chief Joseph before he and his band could cross into Canada. Terry himself went to Canada to negotiate Sitting Bull’s surrender, but was unsuccessful. It was four years before Sitting Bull finally relented, surrendering to Terry.
Terry was promoted to major general in 1886 and took command of Army forces on the Great Plains. He retired from service in 1888.
Dakota Datebook Written by Carole Butcher
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Lincoln’s Birthday and 1909 Pennies
February 12: Today we celebrate the birthdate of Abraham Lincoln. Born in 1809 in a log cabin in Kentucky, Lincoln had less than a year of formal schooling, yet he had ambitions that led him to become a lawyer, congressman, and president of the U.S., he brought the country through the ordeal of the Civil War and became an icon of presidential greatness for many.
In 1909, upon the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, Congress authorized minting a new penny to replace the familiar “Indian Head” cent. The new Lincoln penny, designed by Victor David Brenner, was of the same size and bronze alloy as the old one.
The portrayal of Lincoln on the new penny marked the first time the likeness of a real person was featured upon a U.S. coin, for the others were of Lady Liberty or an eagle. To the left of Lincoln’s face was the word “Liberty,” and to the right was the date, 1909.
The new penny was the first cent to have the motto “In God We Trust,” engraved above Lincoln’s head. Notably, the designer’s initials, V.D.B., were on the reverse side, beneath two wheatstalks arching around the words: “one cent.”
North Dakotans joined a national craze in August to gain possession of the new Lincoln pennies. Some banks got an allotment of 25 or 50 pennies and were giving them away. For example, the First National Bank in Hope, a town in Steele County, gave a free Lincoln penny on Market Day to all “boys and girls under twelve years of age” who wanted one.
Others tried to cash in on the frenzy. In Grand Forks, which reportedly got “very few of the new Lincoln pennies … one little fellow” got one and tried to sell it for ten cents. “In Fargo, there was a veritable run on the banks” by those wishing to get some new Lincoln “V.D.B.” pennies.
The penny grab did not last long, however, for the U.S. Mint soon removed the designer’s initials, believing the initials were too much of a personal advertisement for Victor Brenner. But mint officials later relented, placing a microscopic “VDB” under Lincoln’s shoulder in 1918.
It is unknown how many North Dakota penny-pinchers kept their 1909 pennies, but the 1909 San Francisco Mint, “S” V.D.B. coin is now worth $350 to $1,200, and that’s not small change.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Streamers and Flags
February 13: Almost one year after the end of World War I, in September of 1919, General Pershing led 24,000 “bronzed veterans and victors of battles that saved the world for liberty” through the streets of Washington D.C. in a grand victory parade. Citizens were invited to “make the greatest possible noise so that the fighters shall ever remember their final review as the greatest the nation could give anywhere.”
Imagine the streamers and flags, the men in full combat equipment, often riding combat transportation, the cheering lookers-on, the music playing, even their path, lined by red and white roses. Roses, red and white, to symbolize the blood they shed and the sacrifices they made. The Washington Post urged citizens to “Think, then, when you see them in their pageant of victory, of their 209 officers and 4,690 men who are sleeping in France.”
Some of those fallen soldiers were North Dakotan’s, fresh-faced and fighting in conditions for which they were unprepared. But on this date, a personal interest item linked to this event was printed in the Grand Forks Herald:
“Mrs. Myrtle Lehman, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Tullis of Fargo, has originated one of the beautiful ideas that is to be carried out in conjunction with the big Victory parade.” At the time, Myrtle Lehman was secretary to Commissioner Clover of the Federal Trade Commission. She had made a suggestion “that a single star on a banner of white represent the supreme sacrifice made by the American soldiers, rather than a gold star for each instance.” The flag was officially recognized, and production of it soon began.
Mrs. Lehman was in charge of making the banner, which was estimated to be about twenty feet long, and ten feet wide, sewn together with an estimated 20,000 stitches. It was supported by two poles, and over the single star, “surmounted by golden eagles,” they planned on putting the inscription, “The Boys We Left Behind Us.”
This banner was a connection that brought the ceremony even closer to North Dakota, acting as a prelude to the grand finale of this celebration of victory in the country’s capital.
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Casper Oimoen and the 1936 Winter Olympics
February 16: Back in the day, skiing was as natural as walking for many Norwegians, and when they immigrated to North Dakota, it was logical that they brought skiing and ski-jumping with them. Among them was Casper Oimoen. He became the best ski-jumper in North Dakota in the 1920s and 1930s.
Born in 1906, Casper Oimoen left Norway at age 17 to come to Minot to work as an apprentice bricklayer. Oimoen had started ski-jumping at age 11 in Norway and had become a great talent.
By 1925, he joined a Fargo ski-jumping club and immediately “catapulted into the limelight of American ski-jumping circles” by winning a number of regional competitions. He became one of America’s best amateur ski-jumpers, winning two national championships by 1932, which earned him a place on the U.S. Olympic team. Oimoen was the team captain, and placed fifth at the 1932 Lake Placid Olympics, the best placing ever for an American.
In 1936, Casper Oimoen again joined the American team, and they traveled to the Bavarian Alps for the competition. There had been rumblings that the U.S. should boycott the Olympics to protest Nazi discrimination against its Jewish citizens, but they went anyway.
However, in the opening ceremony on February 6, the U.S. team delivered a not-so subtle message to Adolf Hitler. Athletes from other nations gave Hitler the Olympic arm salute, with right arms outstretched, as they marched in front of Hitler’s reviewing stand. Hitler responded with his arm uplifted in the Nazi salute. But as Oimoen and the U.S. team marched past Hitler, each athlete kept both arms down. They gave him no arm salute, giving Hitler a simple “eyes right” turn of the head in his direction. The Americans declined giving him an Olympic salute because it looked like the Nazi salute. The German crowd gave the Americans a lukewarm reception for their snub.
On February 16, Casper Oimoen competed, finishing in 13th place. Shortly thereafter, he retired from ski-jumping. In 1963, Oimoen became a member of the U.S. Skiing Hall of Fame. He lived in Minot until 1964, and then moved to Oregon. In 1973, North Dakota honored Casper Oimoen with the Rough Rider Award – North Dakota’s highest honor.
Oimoen died in Portland, Oregon, in 1995. Yet his memory lives on in Minot, where a life-sized statue of Oimoen stands proudly in the Scandinavian Heritage Park.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Lake Jessie State Historic Site
February 17: For the rock-bottom price of $15 million, the United States laid claim to 828,000 square miles of the North American interior. Yet, many believed the Louisiana Purchase to be a mistake. The United States paid only five cents per acre, but much of the land was believed to be desert. Indeed, the US government knew little about the territory and so sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their famous expedition of discovery. Lewis and Clark’s journey was a resounding success. Yet the intrepid explorers only scratched the surface of what the territory contained, and subsequent explorers were sent to fully survey and map the newly acquired land.
Perhaps one of the most talented of these cartographers was Nicolas Nicollet. Born in Savoy, France in 1786, Nicollet established himself as one of his country’s most respected scientists. However, following the French stock market crash of 1830, Nicollet was left disgraced and destitute. With little money to his name, Nicollet left his native land and immigrated to the United States in search of work.
Nicollet found employment as a cartographer and soon made a name for himself. His stunningly detailed maps of the American South, along with his work on the Upper Mississippi caught the attention of the US government, who subsequently hired Nicollet to survey the Upper Mississippi River system.
Assisted by John Charles Frémont, a lieutenant in the Topographical Bureau of the Corps of Engineers, Nicollet surveyed the land between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, becoming the first to provide detailed maps of much of what is now eastern North Dakota. Along with the duty of mapping came the privilege of naming landmarks. After camping beside an unnamed lake near present-day Binford, North Dakota, the men decided upon the name of “Jessie” in honor of Jessie Ann Benton, the daughter of a Missouri Senator and the future wife of Charles Frémont.
Given the importance of Nicolas Nicollet’s work and Lake Jessie’s connection to his 1839 expedition, the lake was made a State Historic Site on this date in 1955: preserving the memory of Nicolas Nicollet, one of the many intrepid explorers and surveyors of the Dakota Plains, men who followed in the wake of Lewis and Clark to help bring to fruition the vision of America’s westward expansion.
Dakota Datebook written by Lane Sunwall
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: The Medora Gun Club
February 18: In popular culture, the term Old West is often associated with wild gun-slinging outlaws, shootouts, vigilantes, and stand-offs at high-noon. The Medora of the Old West certainly had its fair share of gunslingers, including the Marquis de Mores, who fought many a duel. Yet, while Medora was certainly a part of the “Wild” West, its citizens actually tried to put together a civilized gun club to practice their shooting skills as a gentlemanly sport.
On this date in 1885, the Medora Gun Club officially elected its five executive officers including A.T. Packard, the founder, editor, and main contributing author of Medora’s Bad Lands Cow Boy newspaper. The members of the fledgling club agreed that the “object of this association shall be to further the interests of rifle, gunshot, and revolver practice.”
Members of the Medora Gun Club signed a contract and paid a one dollar membership fee upon joining, and each new member had to be voted in. The shooting competitions, which were held each Saturday, included a series of five contests such as glass ball and target shooting for rifle, shotgun, and revolver.
The Medora Gun Club contestants paid 50 cents to participate, competing for either a new revolver or a Winchester Rifle – the brand of gun preferred by Theodore Roosevelt.
Packard featured weekly reports on the competitions in the Bad Lands Cow Boy, but his reports revealed that the club wasn’t very popular. Though the men of Medora surely had experience shooting for hunting purposes, the thrill of sharpshooting in competition never took hold.
On March 19, Packard reported that “the last shoot did not come up to the standard of the preceding shoots, owing to the weather or some other of the unaccountable reasons which make any marksman have an off day.”
But the bad shooting of the 19th was not an isolated incident, and the reports of dismal shooting scores continued to appear in the paper.
Fewer and fewer contestants appeared at the competitions each week until a frustrated Packard wrote in late May, “What has become of the Medora Rifle Club? Have they crawled into their holes and died?” The club had simply fizzled out.
Other towns in North Dakota including Bismarck and Grand Forks also had gun clubs, but they were far more successful and well-attended than Medora’s.
Dakota Datebook written by Carol Wilson
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: Winter of 1948
February 19: The winter of 1948 was yet another in a long line with cold temperatures, heavy snow and typical wintery conditions. On this date, a particularly bad two-day blizzard was sweeping across eastern North Dakota. In the Red River Valley, the wind hit 72 miles an hour. Bus service stopped and trains pulled into their stations five hours later than scheduled, finally canceling further trips. People were stranded as transportation routes closed.
Despite the bad conditions, schools stayed open, though parents were advised to “use their own judgment” on sending children to school. No such thing as a snow day here! Even before this storm struck, blizzard conditions had forced two teachers living in Aneta and teaching at Kloten to make their way by plane.
In the aftermath of the weather, two men were found dead near Stanley—a father and son, the former a veteran of the Spanish American war, and the latter a World War II veteran. They had gone out to get some hay, and the load tipped over twice. The elder man was eventually found beneath the hay pile, either frozen or suffocated to death. Other accidents occurred in the terrible conditions, as well.
Extreme weather that February also plagued other parts of the country. The Weather Bureau had its 78th anniversary “without noticing it,” a spokesman telling reporters that they were so busy trying to figure out what the weather would be like that they hadn’t really thought about the years they had been in existence.
One weatherman told reporters that forecasting the weather had only gotten harder over time, saying:
“As weather forecasting has improved through the years—and it has improved—the public has … kept expecting more and more of us, so the job gets tougher all the time…Way back there, a fellow could say ‘it looks like we’ll have a storm in two or three days,’ and if they had a storm around that time everybody said ‘that guy must be good. He knows his stuff.’ Now…when we say there will be a storm, people want to know exactly what hour or what minute the wind will start to blow and how hard, when the rain will start to fall, and how much of it. And then if we miss it, people say ‘those guys are nuts.’”
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
DAKOTA DATEBOOK: A Love Affair with the Horseless Carriage
February 20: The first automobile in North Dakota sparked a wave of excitement when it appeared in Fargo in 1897, igniting the state’s love affair with cars. In 1898, Samuel Holland’s homemade steam-powered jalopy became the first car manufactured in the state. North Dakotans didn’t wait for mass production; they started building their own vehicles. Some, like Holland, sold their creations, while others, like William Walton of Neche, built them for personal use. When Henry Ford’s Model T hit the market in 1908, it sold for four hundred dollars—equivalent to about eleven thousand dollars today.
While some skeptics saw the horseless carriage as an impractical novelty, the automobile craze quickly gained momentum. By 1905, North Dakota passed its first traffic law, setting the speed limit at eight miles an hour in towns and 25 miles an hour on the open road. Pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles had the right of way.
On this date in 1926, the Bismarck Tribune announced North Dakota’s first-ever car show, set to take place the following month in Bismarck. The event was already shaping up to be a major attraction. Originally expected to draw a smaller crowd, interest soared as details were released. Thirty-three cars from eighteen manufacturers, valued at over $100,000, would be on display—all brand-new 1926 models. Ten Bismarck dealers were involved in the planning.
Along with the cars, exhibitors would showcase accessories like radiator caps, bumpers, jacks, and stop signals. Dealers planned special displays featuring trucks and radio equipment in their showrooms.
The event promised more than just vehicles. Entertainment included an orchestra, a fiddling contest, and dancers. The hall was to be decorated with flags and bunting. The newspaper predicted it would be one of the biggest events of the year—and it proved to be no exaggeration. More than thirty-five hundred people paid twenty-five cents each to attend. Local dealers saw a surge in showroom traffic, and everyone involved in planning was thrilled with the results. It was clear: North Dakota’s love affair with the horseless carriage had officially begun.
Dakota Datebook by Dr. Carole Butcher
“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from the North Dakota Humanities Council. See all the Dakota Datebooks at prairiepublic.org, subscribe to the “Dakota Datebook” podcast, or buy the Dakota Datebook book at shopprairiepubli
Leave a Reply