Happy New Year, and maybe you haven’t heard, I’ve opened up a new small part of this website a couple months ago. Dakota Death Trip is a compilation of vintage news articles, photos, and other information, combined to give a picture of the harsh uniqueness that was North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana […]
Author Archives: Derek Dahlsad
Electric and Steam Shovels, 1905
As technology changes, sometimes we get stuck on old terminology; we “dial” a phone, the first TV channel is “2”, and we flatten things with a “steamroller”. Most steamrollers today, of course, are gas or diesel powered, but they’re still ‘steam’ to us. Steam-power ran most construction machinery in the 19th century, but slowly […]
Vanish, North Dakota, 1950s
click for full image In the early 1950s the Garrison Dam was well under construction, and the government was working on accommodating several communities that were about to be soaked by the newly-formed Lake Sakakawea. Two villages, Van Hook and Sanish, were only a few miles apart with a little ridge of high land between […]
WWI Poem, 1948
“Just a thought And just to think – A slap of ink, embroiled the world in War! A fleet of ships through “U” boats slink – A Kaiser is no more.” I tried to find a source for this little, not-quite-rhyming poem, that was near the end of my great-grandfather’s WWI memoir, but I came […]
Antarctica, 1890s.
Click for full image It is usually left off of world maps, but in this one Antarctica is the guest of honor. Most flat map projections, even if they do include Antarctica portray it as a wide band of white, with little visualization of how it actually appears. Above is a map viewing the spherical […]
Rural School, 1930s.
Click for full image A rural brick school, done in the style of numerous schools that were built during the 1920s and 1930s. Few rural school-buildings are still operating as schools today; if they are, the original building has been added on to numerous times over the past seventy years to accommodate growth or consolidation. […]
IDEA, 1940s
Click for full image When producing a movie, everything stems back to this box: IDEA. In the 1940s, these were the sources of ideas: “Play,” “Short Story or Novel,” “Newspaper Story or Current Event,” “Original Story,” “Magazine Article,” or “Historical Incident.” Way off on the left, however, there’s one additional source that’s not shown above: […]
A Warm Stove, 1930s.
Click for full image Warming by the stove, 1930s. From this series.
Camera for the Year 2000, 1968.
Click for more info In the late 1960s, Zeiss-Ikon designer Fritz Costabel was trying to wrap his brain around the Camera Of The Future. In an early 1968 issue of Photoguide Magazine, he described a machine capable of sending photos home wirelessly, radar auto-focusing, and push-button automation. A few months later, the camera above showed […]
German POWs in Minnesota, 1940s
Click for full image As World War II progressed, captured German soldiers were increasing in numbers, and the U.S. needed to do something with them. Numerous POWs were scattered throughout the country and used as labor. Algona, Iowa was the main POW camp in the United States, and several Germans were sent to Algona Branch […]