Dakota Datebook

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.

A supercentenarian is a person who lives to be at least 110 years old. Once a rarity, the number of supercentenarians has grown steadily, and North Dakota has had its fair share.

North Dakota rodeo and Wild West Show performer Scott Gore was born on this date in 1880 in Deadwood, South Dakota. His family moved to North Dakota in the 1890s where his parents worked for the Pierre Wibaux W Bar Ranch.

This week in 1882, the Virginia Star, a black newspaper in Richmond, Virginia reprinted an article from the Conservator, a black newspaper from Chicago, that read: “A number of well-known colored men of this city have united to establish a colored colony in Dakotah. Their pronunciamento is as follows ..."

On this date in 1995 the Bismarck Tribune ran a front-page story about the memorial service for Richard C. Halverson. This was no ordinary service. It was held in the U.S. Capitol building, and the attendees included members of the U.S. Senate. The Reverend Richard C. Halverson had served as the chaplain to the Senate, and the most powerful people in the country gathered to pay tribute to this humble minister from North Dakota.

Gunshots rang, gavels fell, and lessons were learned in the case of Bismarck Police officers Floyd Rouse and Marion House. The incident that brought the young officers from the patrol car to the court room occurred in early December 1947 near Minot. What should have been a routine traffic stop turned into a near death experience.

In this episode of Dakota Datebook, we'll hear Oliver Gourd, elder, educator and enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation, talk about the importance of generosity among the Dakota people.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was established in 1933 to provide jobs for unemployed men during the Great Depression. Over the nine years of its existence the Corps, known as the “CCC,” employed about three million men. They were paid thirty dollars a month, a princely sum during the depths of the Depression. Most of the money was sent home to their families.

In this episode of Dakota Datebook, we'll hear Catherine Howard, elder, educator, and enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation, talk about the importance of generosity among the Dakota people.

North Dakota has not always been a Republican-controlled state, but you have to look far back to find when Democrats were driving the bus – especially in the state House of Representatives.