If you head north on Highway 18 from Casselton, on your way to Arthur and Hunter, you’ll pass by the little town of Amenia. You might not even notice it: the highway takes a bend to the east, and a thick shelterbelt blocks the view of town, other than the grain elevator peeking over the […]
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The Steamboat Montana
My Dakota Datebook today tells the tale of the Wreck of the Montana. In June, 1879, a tornado hit the boat landing at Bismarck, wreaking havoc on the steamboats moored there. Three were tied up; the Montana’s sister-ship Dakotah and the Col. Mcleod made it through with minor damage. The Montana, pictured below, […]
Gandhi SHRDLU
I found this compelling article in the 18 June 1931 issue of The Beach (N.D.) Advance: It reads: SHEDDING NON-ESSENTIALS All India is gossiping over Mahatma Gandhi’s unprecedented action in laying aside his spinning wheel and his h. e-uloo SHRDLU EATOISHSHSHRD.–Boston Transcript. The article probably wasn’t run out of any newsman dedication to at least […]
Horsepower, 1884
As I was doing my usual reading of old newspapers I ran across this advertisement. Ads for agricultural implements aren’t unusual, but this one in a May 1884 issue of the Bismarck Tribune caught my eye because of the odd device at the top. Mounted to a wagon are a large array of gears and […]
The Rusk Auto-House, 1915
One of the things my Wifey likes about me is that I geek out over weird things. A few summers ago, while we were cruising rummage sales around Fargo, I started to geek out over a small building in an alley in the older section of town. Yes, I’m a garage nerd, but for one […]
The Cunningham Sanitarium, 1920s
What is it — an oil tank? A spacecraft? A nuclear reactor? In 1928, this was the cutting-edge in medical technology: The Cunningham Sanitarium. Dr. Orval J Cunningham was experimenting with the use of oxygen to treat a variety of diseases, particularly diabetes and asthma, at the University of Kansas in Kansas City, Missouri. Part […]
Meet Katy High, 1963
Do you know Katy High? Here she is, in 1963, with a big sash around her shoulders so she doesn’t forget her name. Sorry for the large image; that’s the nature of Miss Katy High: Katy High is not actually her real name. This woman is 19-year-old Carol R Dettmann, Miss Tall USA […]
Mails By Electricity, 1890
Oscar was so close with his 1890 invention of “electric mail” process, but yet so far: To Send Mails by Electricity. Oscar Kleinsteinber, superintendent of the police alarm and telephone system of Milwaukee, is working on a new invention which may ultimately revolutionize the present system of carrying mails between different cities. It is intended […]
Black’s Store Costume Party, 1932
Happy Halloween from Black’s Department Store! This wasn’t the store located in the Black Building: the photo was taken in 1932, so this ragtag bunch of costumed employees worked for the Store Without A Name, Black’s followup to his original department store. Sure, the photo was taken in November, but you can’t always plan your […]
The Petroleum Tree, 1957
View Full-Size Image Here we have the Tree of Petroleum, the family structure of what comes from crude oil and ends up in your car, on your body, and in your food. It’s rather creepy to have a whole branch devoted to wax that goes into all the various parts of your body, but […]