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Operation Skywatch, 1952
By STEVE HOFFBECK
April 24 -- The 1950s has been called the "Decade of Fear," for in the time of the Cold War, the worst fear was of "the Bomb"--the atomic bomb.
In 1949, Russia tested its first atomic bomb, and defense experts feared the Soviets would launch a sneak attack on the United States. To guard against such an attack, the Air Force began installing a line of radar stations. Unfortunately, the radars of that era could not accurately detect "low-flying" aircraft. Accordingly, the Defense Department issued a nationwide call for volunteers to scan the skies for hostile aircraft, night and day.
These volunteers were known as the Ground Observer Corps, and on this date in 1952, the sky-watchers in North Dakota and 26 other states were told to get ready for around-the-clock duty, twenty-four hours a day.
Bismarck was one of two North Dakota reporting stations for the Ground Observer Corps, responsible for 130 observation posts across western North Dakota. Fargo was the other center, responsible for the eastern half of the state.
Trained skywatchers in each observation post would take a two-hour shift, looking through binoculars for all aircraft in their zone. Each observer then wrote up a description of the plane and gave the information by telephone to the Bismarck and Fargo Filter Centers.
The Filter Centers, each staffed by Air Force personnel, kept track of all aircraft, keeping charts on all scheduled commercial and private flights.
The Bismarck filter-center commander, Maj. Raymond Mial, explained the need for vigilance, saying the U.S.S.R had the capability of delivering a surprise attack with 400 bombers. He said the observer reports were vital to stopping the "ruthless" Russians from bombing strategic targets by flying over the North Pole.
President Harry Truman praised the civilian observers in what became known as "Operation Skywatch," saying they helped make "America so strong, that no enemy would dare attack."
And so, from 1952 to 1959, hundreds of North Dakotans climbed up observation posts and tracked incoming airplanes, night and day, in two-hour or four-hour shifts, without pay and largely without thanks, watching for a nuclear attack, that, thankfully, never happened. Doubtless, the time spent scanning the horizon formed unforgettable Cold War memories for North Dakota's Operation Skywatch volunteers.
Bismarck
Booze Bust
By MERRY HELM
April 25 -- During the early years, Bismarck was right on the heels of Deadwood in lawlessness, violence and the selling of liquor. But, by the early 1900s, some Bismarck residents felt it was time to actually enforce prohibition. Saloons that carried on in secret were called "blind pigs," and their beverages were either illegally produced locally or brought in from Canada by "runners."
On this date in 1907, a Bismarck Tribune headline read: "Thousand Dollars Worth of Booze Found in a Cave," because Chief Carr found an 'Unusual Quantity' of 'Joyful Water' under a hill near Fifth Street. He and Temperance Commissioner Murray found a door reinforced with iron bars, so Carr got a shovel and burrowed under it. Inside, they found a 10 x 16 room "filled to the roof with about every kind of intoxicating liquor consumed in this neck of the woods…"
Commissioner Murray posted guards, and at dawn they packed the booze into five wagons and took it to the capitol. The paper reported the cave was "the house of a thousand bottles, to say nothing of the barrels and boxes and cases and jugs and receptacles and containers and vessels and jars and other things in which the juice of the grape and the distillation of the corn is…contained."
The next day, the paper gave a detailed inventory and reported, "…amid watering mouths and downcast eyes the stuff was taken into vaults and locked up to await the judicial verdict that shall consign it to mother earth, or send it up in vapors to lead the birds to new song and agitate the leaves of the trees with an unwonted glee."
Otto Reimer admitted the stock was his and that he stored it there after his saloon was closed. He refused to officially claim it, though; he told officials to do what they wanted with it. So, they opened each container and tested the contents of each to determine "whether or not they were in the nature of an intoxicating liquor." They were. The judge declared all should be destroyed.
Grand Prize
By SARAH WALKER
April 26 -- In 1954, the grand prize of the raffle for the St. Leo School's carnival in Minot was really grand, and tempting, too: a cream and green-colored, 1954 Dodge.
One very lucky person was drawn and announced, and on this day, the car was scheduled to be delivered to her--a 5-year-old Menoken girl named Kathleen Richter.
Money was tight for the family, but when the raffle came around, Mrs. Richter bought a ticket for each of the members of the family -- each of the ten children -- saying that it was for a good cause and the Lord would provide.
Her parents put on over 100,000 miles before she reached an age to drive, even though she tried once at age 8.
It was the only thing Kathleen ever won. But it was her father who got to drive it home.
Midway Murders
By JAYME L. JOB
April 27 -- One of the most horrific mass murders in North Dakota's history occurred in April of 1920, at the farmstead of Jacob Wolf near Turtle Lake. Wolf, his wife, five children, and a 13-year-old farmhand were brutally murdered with a hatchet and shotgun. Five of the victims were found in the cellar of the farmhouse by a neighbor, and three were found in the nearby barn and hayshed.
One lone survivor, 8-month-old Emma, was unharmed in her crib. On this date in 1920, without leads or a suspect, authorities called on the public to help solve the baffling murders. Within weeks, neighbor Henry Layer confessed to the killings, revealing that an argument over Mr. Wolf's dog had led to the murders.
"Dakota Datebook" is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from Humanities North Dakota.