Dakota Datebook

On this date in 1930, the body of Vernon Squires, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, laid in state at the University of North Dakota.

Registering a child’s birth today seems straightforward. It ensures your new arrival is counted in the state’s population and receives a record that will follow them throughout life. Birth certificates are essential to access education, healthcare, government services and to prove one’s identity. But just a few generations ago, registering a birth wasn’t so simple.

On this date in 1870, the Chippewa-Sioux Peace Agreement was signed at Fort Abercrombie by leaders of the two rival tribes. The three-day event, sometimes called a treaty, was arranged by missionary priest Father Genin and attended by 900 people.

On this date in 1995, the Bismarck Tribune reported about the decay of the Fortuna Air Force Station. From 1951 to 1979, the station was an active radar station in the Air Defense Command that protected the United States from attack.

Due to the severe lack of parking space in downtown districts, nine North Dakota cities turned to parking meters in hopes of solving their parking problems. This began the short but fraught, history of parking meters in North Dakota.

By 1916, the United States had managed to stay out of the war in Europe, but there was growing uneasiness about the country’s future. Inflation was beginning to creep up, and as the labor market tightened, business was disrupted by strikes. Workers demanded higher pay and better working conditions. Farmers, on the other hand, benefited from increased demand and higher prices for agricultural products. Americans anxiously awaited the outcome of the 1916 presidential election.

Before the first bridge was built across the Missouri River, getting across was the business of ferries. The first documented ferry began operation in 1860, between Bismarck and Mandan.

The Homestead Act of 1862 attracted new settlers to Dakota Territory. Some settled in towns, but most were drawn by the promise of owning 160 acres to start farms and ranches. New towns were small and scattered across the territory. They supported agriculture as centers of trade, services, entertainment, and social life.

Who hasn’t experienced the momentary, magical thrill of seeing a meteor flash across the night sky in the corner of your eye? It vanishes almost instantly yet its vapor trail lingers longer in your imagination.

In the summer of 1861, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase approached Congress. He could clearly see that the Civil War was going to be expensive. He said he needed $320 million over the next year. He thought he could come up with $300 million through existing taxes and the sale of public lands and he left it to Congress to find the remaining twenty million.