Dakota Datebook

Every year, dozens of communities from across the country compete for the prestigious All-America City Award, presented by the National Civic League. George Gallup, founder of the Gallup Poll, once called it the “Nobel Prize for constructive citizenship.”

Bismarck is home to a house inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. The beige brick house built in 1963 and 1964 is of the Usonian design. These “modest” houses, represent Wright’s ideals in construction, in part because they are “bound to nature, and responsive to the lives of their inhabitants.”

May is National Historic Preservation Month! Today, we’ll hear about some of the historic places in North Dakota that are included in the state’s Historic Sites Registry.

For years and years, the biggest tree in North Dakota grew along the Goose River in a pasture on the farm of Arthur Hanson.

Reeder, Wolfe, and Wasche came to Wahpeton during the boomtown years and became very wealthy. They envisioned the civilizing influence of a massive brick opera house on the corner of Dakota Avenue, the main street of the rowdy frontier town. Key to the venture were several railroad lines running daily to cities where acclaimed dramatic and musical acts were based. Entertainers and audiences could arrive and depart on tracks behind the building.

During the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt was anxious to get into the action. He raised a volunteer cavalry unit for the conflict. Famously known as the Rough Riders, Roosevelt’s volunteers served in Cuba and took part in the battle of San Juan Hill.

May is National Historic Preservation Month. Today we will hear about some of the historic places in North Dakota that are included in North Dakota’s State Historic Sites Registry.

The United States was not prepared for a foreign war as tensions with Spain rose in 1898. Then, on February 15, 1898, the battleship Maine exploded in Havana Harbor. Two hundred sixty American sailors were killed, and war seemed inevitable.

North Dakotans are familiar with severe weather. The state is no stranger to tornadoes, hailstorms, blizzards, and floods. But geologically, North Dakota is quite stable. Since 2010, the state has recorded thirty-one earthquakes. That might sound like a lot, but by comparison, California can experience more than thirty-five earthquakes in just twenty-four hours.

The first North Dakota capitol building was completed in 1894, five years after statehood. It was destroyed by fire in the early hours of December 28, 1930. The state wasted no time beginning work on a new capitol, even selling off 160 acres of the capitol grounds to help fund construction.