Alexander Henry 1801

Alexander Henry established Fort Pembina in 1801. He was the first non-native person that we know of who planted a garden in what is now North Dakota. How do we know? Because he left detailed journals behind telling us about it. From 1799-1814 he wrote journal entries about his experiences exploring the West working in the fur trade. The following three journal entries help draw a picture of Henry’s garden:

• October 20, 1803, “I took in my potatoes, 420 bushels the produce of 7 bushels, exclusive of the roasted quantity we have eat since our arrival here.... I measured the circumference of an onion which was 22 inches, a carrot 18 inches long, and at the thick upper end it measured 14 inches in circumference. A turnip with its leaves weighed 25 pounds and the leaves cut of it weighed 15 pounds. The common weight of them are from 9 to 12 pounds without the leaves.”

• September 19, 1804, “I gathered in my cucumbers and made a nine gallon keg of pickles, having plenty of vinegar, made from the sap of the maple tree, and which is most excellent, very little inferior to that imported.”

• September 28, 1804:…Men had finished in gathering in all the potatoes

Homestead Act 1863

The Homestead Act granted 160 acres of free land to a person who, for a small fee, built a house on it, lived in the house for 5 years and farmed the land.

How do we know? There are many books and movies about this period in American history. Our own state archives here at the Heritage Center have several collections of personal papers from people who settled here during the homesteading period. These records include diaries, letters, scrapbooks, photographs, and other papers that document their experiences. Look at the document above. What is going on with this document? Try to make sense of it. What more can we learn?

Northern Pacific Railroad 1872

The Northern Pacific Railroad was the first line to come to North Dakota, entering the state across the Red River from Minnesota in 1872, where the city of Fargo is located today. Railroads influenced the state’s economy, communities, and politics in many ways. This affected who lived here, where they lived, what they did for a living, and sometimes even who they voted for. Towns were built where railroads companies decided to lay their tracks. They brought settlers, many of them immigrants from European countries. Many of the settlers farmed and sent wheat back east. How do we know the history of the railroads? This era in history has been well documented through personal papers, photographs, books, movies, and museum collections. The records of many railroad companies can be found in archives and libraries across the country. There are museums dedicated to railroad history. Camp Hancock, a state historic site in Bismarck, has a retired NPRR locomotive onsite. Railroad enthusiasts have a wealth of knowledge available to them to learn more.

Bonanza Farms 1874

In addition to homesteading, people could buy land directly from the railroads. Some companies like the Northern Pacific Railroad, received grants from the government of large tracts of land. Rich investors in the east acquired land through these grants. These huge farms, 3,000 acres or more, were called bonanza farms. The landowner would hire farm managers and hundreds of seasonal migrant workers to run the farm and do all the work. These bonanza farms, found mostly in the Red River Valley, demonstrated the massive scale of farming that the landscape could support. By 1900 most of the big bonanza farms had been split up into smaller family farms.

The Great Western Trail 1876-1893

The Great Western Trail came to North Dakota in the late 1870s. Texas longhorn cattle were driven to western North Dakota to graze on the open prairie. The Long X Ranch was founded in McKenzie County around 1884. The HT Ranch, which raised mostly horses, was founded near Amidon, ND in 1883. While the cattle drive era was short-lived in North Dakota, ranching continues to be big business.

How do we know where the cattle drives were? It can be hard to pick up where the old trails ran across the prairies. A lot of the landscape has been altered over the years by natural changes in the landscape and by the obliterating effect of humans. As people have built roads, farmed the land, and developed communities, the trails get harder and harder to find. We can look at old photographs, maps, and diaries of the people who traveled over these trails to piece together where they were. Archeological evidence can help verify the portions of the trail we can still sometimes visibly pick out on the landscape.

The Great Dakota Boom 1878-1887

From 1878 to 1886 the eastern two-thirds of North Dakota was rapidly settled. This was called the Great Dakota Boom. The railroads and the Homestead Act were two major factors that account for this wave of settlers. How do we know the railroads impacted settlement patterns? How do we know the population of North Dakota increased sharply in a few years? There are lots of records from this time period available that convey railroad efforts to attract both settlers and tourists to all the lands along their respective routes. For example, this book (see below) was produced by the Northern Pacific Railroad to specifically promote farmland from Minnesota to the end of the rail in Washington. A researcher can find population statistics for North Dakota on page five. Archives and libraries across the state, including the State Archives here at the North Dakota Heritage Center.

World War One 1918

By the time WWI was ending, many farms in North Dakota were transitioning from horse and/or steam power to gasoline-powered mass-produced tractors. Thousands of horses had been shipped to Europe for the war effort, helping to increase the need for alternate sources of power. Steam engines require an engineer to operate, burn coal when idle, and could explode if not operated properly. The change on farms from heavy steam engines that compact the soil to internal combustion engines happened quickly. Gasoline engines are cheaper, safer, and easier to operate, and are more versatile for most tasks. While steam engines have been completely replaced on working farms, there are a number of historical societies, museums, and threshing organizations that still maintain and run them for special events and programs.

The Great Depression 1930s

The Great Depression was a global, economic crisis that coincided with a severe drought on the Great Plains. These were very hard times, and many farms failed. Large numbers of people left North Dakota for better opportunities elsewhere. A number of new federal programs, known as the New Deal, were created as a direct result of the hard times Americans experienced from 1929 to 1941. The school lunch program started during the Depression years as a way to use excess commodity crops in a welfare program for poor children. This evolved into the program that continues in our schools today as an affordable lunch option for most students. Study the documents below. What is going on here? How can you tell?

Industrializtion 1950s

Post-WWII years were defined by mass industrialization and rural electrification. Combines replaced threshing machines and, by 1954, 90% of North Dakota farms had electricity and combines had replaced threshing machines.