Patriot Day

By CAROLE BUTCHER

Sept. 11 — Any adult alive on Sept. 11, 2001, probably remembers where they were when the Twin Towers fell. New York City may seem very far away from North Dakota. But North Dakotans were directly affected by the event. A mother lost her daughter; a police officer from North Dakota reported for duty on his day off and spent the next week working at Ground Zero; and many North Dakotans went to war in the aftermath.

It may seem overwhelming when one tries to contemplate over 3,000 people who died that day, but each person has a story. Each victim left behind family and friends who continue to feel pain and anguish over their loss.

But sometimes good things come out of terrible events. Jenette Nelson watched the attacks from her living room in North Dakota. She knew her daughter Ann was on the 104th floor of the north tower. It was painful to watch the coverage and to learn that Ann did not survive. When her belongings arrived home, they included her laptop computer.

Jenette said it was five years before she could bring herself to open the computer. When she did, she found Ann’s bucket list. It included activities such as scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef and volunteering for charity. One item caught Jenette’s attention. Ann wanted to build a home in North Dakota.

An organization called “New York Says Thank You” heard of the bucket list. The group consists of New York City firefighters, ground zero workers, and the families of victims. They stepped up to the challenge. In 2012, more than 500 volunteers traveled to North Dakota. They worked to build an 11,000 square foot ski lodge. The building was designed to accommodate disabled children. It will also welcome injured veterans.

New York Says Thank You travels the country after disasters, like tornadoes, hurricanes, and fires. The organization helps the communities rebuild. It seeks to do for the rest of the country what people did for New York after 9/11.

The North Dakota project was the first that honored a 9/11 victim. The building is called Annie’s House. Jenette says the project is a comfort, and an item on Ann’s bucket list to cross off.

Draftees Mobilization

By JIM DAVIS

Sept. 12 — Until the end of summer in 1917, the war was still somewhat impersonal for most North Dakotans. Many young men seeking adventure had joined in the early months of the war, but most communities were not affected and deaths were few.

Those who enlisted over the summer had departed as individuals or in small groups amid the fanfare of patriotic celebrations. The main units of the North Dakota National Guard were still stationed within the boundaries of the state. With few North Dakotans in harm’s way, the war was more of an inconvenience. Rationing had not yet become a part of everyday life, but people were asked to conserve most resources.

For many, it was not until the first call of draftees that the reality of war was brought home. These men were being stripped from the community, and their destiny became tied to the battlefields of Europe. Many were married with young families, and many were nurturing careers. Plans were postponed, and families would wait now anxiously for their return.

Now that the draft selection was almost complete, the time had come to begin moving the massive numbers of men. Only 5% of the assigned quota was initially called up. Once they subtracted credits for those who enlisted or were members of the National Guard, North Dakota’s share was only 90 men statewide. On the 6th of September, Cass County’s quota of 18 men boarded the special Northern Pacific train at Fargo containing three sleeper cars en route to Camp Dodge, Iowa. Several thousand people, including units of the National Guard, jammed the avenues leading to the train station.

Among the tears and good cheers, the Cass County men joined their fellow draftees who had boarded at stations further west. On this date in 1917, another, much larger contingent of draftees, numbering almost two thousand men, was notified to prepare for mobilization.

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union provided each man with a comfort kit. It was a bag approximately 10-by-13 inches with a drawstring at the top. The contents included needles, thread, and other sewing goods, as well as shaving soap, regular soap, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a small mirror, a pocket knife and shoe laces. The WCTU was a strong advocate for abolishing the use of tobacco, so it was ironic that as they were passing out the comfort kits, nearby the Fargo Forum was collecting funds to provide tobacco kits – another of the comforts from home.

Lost Treasure at the Mouth of Heart River, 1863

By DREW LINGLE

Edited by STEVEN HOFFBECK

Sept. 13 — The year was 1863 and the Civil War raged, far away in the East. The Sibley and Sully military expeditions had driven Dakota tribespeople westward out of Minnesota in a number of battles following the 1862 Indian uprising. And in Dakota Territory there was a day when the Missouri River, near present-day Bismarck, ran red with blood.

On this date, in 1863, the New York Times reported that “a party of thirty miners” traveling down the Missouri River was “supposed to have been killed by the Indians.” More information came from the St. Paul Daily Press: these miners, returning home from Idaho gold fields, were all murdered by Dakota warriors.

The miners’ demise was wrapped in mystery, but the details became known months later when Native Americans told another group of returning miners what had happened.

The ill-fated party, consisted of 18 men, one woman, and three children in a large, flat-bottomed mackinaw boat. Anticipating trouble, they were well armed with rifles and a small cannon. Each miner carried a pouch filled with gold dust, and the boat allegedly had a false bottom that concealed more gold. They stopped at Fort Berthold, where fur-trader Fred Gerard sold them supplies and advised them not to go further into danger. One miner did elect to stay at Fort Berthold. The others knew the potential hazards, but continued on.

On Aug. 10, 1863, at the mouth of the Heart River, a group of Yanktonai Dakota came along the Missouri riverbank, beckoning the miners to come ashore, but the miners “responded by firing the cannon three times.” The warriors vigorously returned fire.

Unfortunately for the miners, the firing of the cannon caused the boat to spring a leak. It sank, running aground in shallow water. Sensing an opening, the Dakota attacked. Nearly 200 Dakota launched an onslaught upon the miners who fought desperately to save their lives and the gold, killing 36 warriors. However, with limited ammunition, the miners were overpowered and killed. The Yanktonai reportedly used the gold from the pouches to buy ammunition.

Fort Berthold’s Fred Gerard, hearing of the disaster, sent several of his Arikara friends to the site to scrape up spilt gold. But the gold nuggets hidden in the sunken boat’s false bottom supposedly remained.

Many people later hunted for this legendary Heart River gold, searching riverbanks several miles south of Bismarck. This raises the question: “Is the fabled Heart River gold still there?”

North Dakota Sure Looked Good

By CAROLE BUTCHER

Sept. 14 — The Federal Highway Act of 1921 established the Bureau of Public Roads, in charge of mapping plans for a national highway system, but those improvements would take time, and travelling any distance by automobile remained a challenge. There were few paved roads. Even roads listed as “good” were likely unpaved, making mud a constant hazard.

On this date in 1922, the Ward County Independent reported that a group of adventurous North Dakotans had just returned from a challenging 10,000 mile journey by car. Mr. and Mrs. Carl Bach and their sons Clayton and Kenneth had joined Dr. and Mrs. R.C. Lang on June 17, setting off in a Ford sedan and a Buick. They planned to visit family and friends on their travels and were determined to see the American west, and see it they did!

The group drove through the Black Hills and declared it to be some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. They paused there to fish in the clear streams. Then they headed west to Colorado. They spent the Fourth of July in Mesa Verde National Park and hiked for miles. They visited Glacier National Park and dared some of the worst roads of the trip to reach Crater Lake. They stopped at Yosemite Park on their way to San Francisco. There they were thrilled to swim in the ocean, but said no one should go to California unless they had considerable money as everything was very expensive.

The travelers took the southern route on their return. Mr. Bach said there was no amount of money that could coax him back into the desert. That leg of the trip took them five days and the temperature hit 106 degrees, but he was glad for the experience.

The cars suffered three flat tires and a few broken springs, but there were comparatively few difficulties. Mr. Bach said the travelers had seen many wonderful sights, but he added that North Dakota sure looked good, saying, “The finest thing I have seen in a long while was Main Street of Minot, brilliantly lighted as I drove in from the south, the night of our return.”

Alexander Burr

By LUCID THOMAS

Sept. 15 — Due to the popular hit musical Hamilton, the story of Aaron Burr shooting Alexander Hamilton has been refreshed in our collective memory. What is far less know, is that with 40 years of judicial service, there was an Alexander Burr … no connection whatever to the shooting … who was the second-longest serving judge in North Dakota.

Burr was born on February 25th, 1871, in Perthshire, Scotland. Two years later, he moved with his parents to North America and lived in Trinidad and Ontario before coming to the Dakota Territories in 1883. In 1885, they moved to Bottineau County, and this is where Burr grew to adulthood while attending schools in Canada. He went on to teach school for five terms before he pursued higher education at the University of Michigan, graduating with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in law. That same year he was admitted to the North Dakota Bar and elected as State’s Attorney of Bottineau County. He resigned two years later and moved to Grand Forks, where he ran an exclusive law business before returning to Bottineau County in June of 1899.

In 1900 and 1902 he was reelected as State’s Attorney and in 1908 he was elected as judge for the Ninth Judicial District. He stayed in this position until 1919. In 1926, at 55 years old, he was appointed to the North Dakota Supreme Court by Governor Sorlie. In 1928, he was elected to his first full term. Burr proved to be popular and was reelected in 1934 and once again in 1942. He continued to serve until old age began catch up to him, and he finally retired on this date in 1949, ending almost 23 years of service on the court. A little over a year later, he passed away – on Feb. 8, 1951. His dedication to the law helped make the state of North Dakota what it is today.

“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.