Norwegian immigrants in the 1920s saw their chance at financial independence: an Amsterdam bank ran ads in newspapers looking for descendants of Elizabeth Sabo, a Manx woman who ended up in Norway after a ill-fated cow milking expedition. The Amsterdam Fortune was her brother’s, bequeathed to the 6th generation of her offspring, to be paid […]
Tag Archives: history
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 […]
Dakota Death Trip
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 […]
Jesse James was a Piker, 1959
Advertisement for a regular The Farmer feature known as “The Watchdog.” Full text available here. The use of the word “piker” doesn’t follow most definitions I can find: it usually means ‘miserly’ or a ‘hobo’, but the article uses it in a “thieving” context. If you do happen to be in the Northfield area, Jesse […]
The Invisible Jet Fighter
No, we’re not talking about stealth fighters — Grumman’s invisible jet fighter was an example of a very early flight simulator. Using a Reeves analog computer, Grumman compiled test data using models and simulations to program the computer and ‘flight-test’ imaginary aircraft’s data against actual flight information. Analog simulators had been around for about a […]