Dakota Datebook

The 1910 polio epidemic began in the Northeast and spread across the country. It primarily affected children and caused widespread fear and confusion. There were no reliable treatments, and desperate parents sometimes turned to unproven methods to help their children.

November 19 marks the annual Lydia Pinkham Open Studios event in Lynn, Massachusetts, showcasing artists at the historic factory where Lydia’s famous Vegetable Compound for Women was manufactured.

On this date in 1932, a two-day demonstration of Boy Scout activities was held at the Wahpeton Indian School for troops from Richland and Wilkin counties. Physician and author Charles Alexander Eastman, a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota, served as an advisor in developing the national Boy Scout movement and its Native American Lore component.

North Dakota tops all other states in the production of several crops, including oats, flaxseed, canola, and peas, and ranks second in sunflowers and wheat. The state usually places between 15th and 20th in national corn production. While corn isn’t one of North Dakota’s top crops, it’s still significant, its annual production is valued at about two billion dollars.

I’m going to share with you a story you probably won’t believe, but it’s true. Long before Red Bull or Monster, a farmer in North Dakota may have stumbled on the first real “energy drink.”

In 2008, Woodrow Wilson Keeble was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush for his actions in the Korean War.

Steamboats on the Missouri and Red Rivers once made travel much easier. Of course, the steamboats had to be taken out of the water for the winter but the rivers were still used for travel.

The measles cropped up in North Dakota in 1905. At first, it didn’t attract much attention, and there were only small mentions of it. Newspapers reported that “W.S. Dow has been wrestling with the measles this week,” and “H.M. Blazer and family are sick with the measles.” These small incidents were precursors to the main event.

Armistice Day was the name of the holiday we now call Veterans Day until 1954, reflecting the date of the armistice with Germany that ended hostilities in World War I in 1918. The Bismarck Tribune published an extra edition announcing the historic end of the war and how quickly the news spread across North Dakota, with the banner headline: “PEACE.”

Drake, North Dakota, English teacher Bruce Severly did not expect controversy to erupt when he added Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” to the reading list for his class. Most of the students were pleased with the addition, but one student complained about offensive language. That was enough for the school board to order the book removed from the classroom and to direct that all copies be destroyed.