Dakota Datebook

Grain silos have been a staple of American agriculture since the 17th century. They were introduced by Dutch farmers who built round structures covered with fabric and topped with a thatched roof. The structure was called a hay barrack, designed to store dry hay. As farmers moved to areas with more severe winters – like North Dakota – they needed a better way to store fodder.

In this episode of Dakota Datebook, we'll listen to Scott Davis, enrolled member of Standing Rock Nation, talking about how this is Indian country.

Around this time of year, many North Dakotans are hunkering down to enjoy the winter holidays. If you were Prince Alexander Phillip Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied in the winter of 1833-34, you would be spending your days with the Indigenous people of the Great Plains, well before the region became North Dakota.

Are you familiar with liquid air? As described by the Oakes Times in 1911, liquid air could freeze a man’s finger in less than a minute, convert steam into snow-like ice, cause steel to burn a dazzling color, and it could even be used as a local anesthetic by surgeons. Liquid air is the liquid state of air obtained by compressing purified air and cooling it to less than the boiling point of nitrogen and oxygen. It has many fascinating uses.

North Dakota’s economy, relying heavily on the unpredictable weather, has always been volatile. Cycles of drought and harsh winters can make it hard to earn a living.

In this episode of Dakota Datebook, we'll listen to Charles Hunter, enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, talking about where I'm from.

The Pure Foods Movement was a grass roots effort that called attention to the presence of unhealthy additives in processed food. Prior to 1906, there was no governmental oversight of processed foods and pharmaceutical drugs. Purity, quality, and sanitation were not regulated. Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel “The Jungle” exposed the unsanitary conditions of Chicago slaughterhouses. The book increased people’s awareness of the unhealthy condition of some foods.

The most recent farming crisis occurred in the 1980s. Issues began the decade before as farmers began taking on more debt for land and equipment. Farm debt doubled between 1978 and 1984. Then record production made commodity prices fall, an embargo against the USSR decreased exports, and the price of farmland continued to increase. All of these factors displaced many farmers and ranchers.

Kendall Mork was born on this date in 1918 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At three-and-a-half years of age, Kendall was orphaned when both his parents succumbed to Tuberculosis. An aunt and uncle in Hatton, North Dakota took him. After graduating from High School, he went to the Agriculture College in Fargo, Luther College in Iowa, and then the University of Southern California for Aviation Engineering.

On April 4, 1917 the United States Senate voted to declare war against Germany. Two days later the House of Representatives endorsed the declaration, and the United States entered World War I.