File:Cattle-invade-a-state-capitol-1936.jpg

The caption, in the August 9, 1936 edition of the New York Times claimed: "Cattle invade a state capitol. A herd driven from the drought area contentedly grazes on the capitol grounds at Bismarck, N. D." Sadly, the New York Times archive doesn't include this tid-bit as of December 2007. This is a bad scan from a bad copy of some bad microfilm of the Fargo Forum, 27 August 1936.

In an 28 October 2009 article, Errol Morris, however, has discovered evidence that this photo is a factual representation of the State Capitol at the time:

The conflict produced an almost endless array of accusations, retractions and counter-accusations — a roundelay of finger-pointing. Buried on a back page on Sept. 6, The Times published a correction regarding the alleged composite photograph of cattle grazing in front of the state capitol building: "a North Dakota newspaper has publicly retracted its charges that a WPA photographer "faked" a drought picture in Bismarck..." The cattle were in front of the North Dakota capitol; the photograph had not been faked. One picture had not been combined with another. The report of the fake had been a fake. And yet, once the faked photograph had been re-baptized as an "honest" photo, the claims against it started all over again. On Sept. 9, The Times published an article, "[The Fargo Forum] Denies Retracting WPA 'Fake' Charge, Paper Again Attacks Drought Picture, saying Cattle Have Always Grazed at Capitol."

The Fargo Forum has not retracted the charge that the cattle picture was a drought fake. "It was a drought fake and is a drought fake." The newspaper then relates the history of the picture, which it at first believed to be the result of superimposing one shot on another, then discovered it to be an actual shot of dairy cattle owned by a Bismarck dairyman which frequently meander through the Capitol grounds. The Capitol is bordered on three sides by open farming and ranch land. Watchman [sic] for years have had the job of chasing wandering cows away from the building. "The Fargo Forum was wrong when it said that the cattle picture was the result of superimposing one picture on another. It was wrong and it said so. That did not alter the status of the picture as a fake one whit."