Wow what a great state to be located out of.....North Dakota!
Here is a little history about North Dakota (taken from
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
History
Prior to European contact, Native Americans inhabited North Dakota
for thousands of years. The first European to reach the area was the
French-Canadian trader
La Vérendrye, who led an exploration party to
Mandan villages in 1738.
[17]
The trading arrangement between tribes was such that North Dakota
tribes rarely dealt directly with Europeans. However, the native tribes
were in sufficient contact that by the time that
Lewis and Clark entered North Dakota in 1804, they were aware of the French and then Spanish claims to their territory.
[18]
Settlers in front of their sod house in
Milton in 1898.
Much of present-day North Dakota was included in the
Louisiana Purchase of 1803; the remainder was acquired in the
Treaty of 1818. The acquired land was organized into
Minnesota and
Nebraska Territories.
Dakota Territory, making up present-day North and
South Dakota, along with parts of present-day
Wyoming and
Montana, was
organized on March 2, 1861.
[19]
Dakota Territory was settled sparsely until the late 19th century,
when the railroads entered the region and aggressively marketed the
land. An omnibus bill for statehood for North Dakota,
South Dakota,
Montana, and
Washington titled the
Enabling Act of 1889 was passed on February 22, 1889 during the administration of
Grover Cleveland. After Cleveland left office, it was left to his successor,
Benjamin Harrison, to sign proclamations formally admitting North and South Dakota to the Union on November 2, 1889.
[20]
The rivalry between the two new states presented a dilemma of which
was to be admitted first. Harrison directed Secretary of State
James G. Blaine
to shuffle the papers and obscure from him which he was signing first
and the actual order went unrecorded, thus no one knows which of the
Dakotas was admitted first.
[21][22] However, since
North Dakota alphabetically appears before
South Dakota,
its proclamation was published first in the Statutes At Large. Since
that day, it has become common to list the Dakotas alphabetically and
thus North Dakota is usually listed as the 39th state.
Unrest among wheat farmers, especially among Norwegians, led to a
radical political movement after World War I centered in the left-wing
Non Partisan League ("NPL"). The NPL, which eventually merged into the
Democratic Party,
attempted to insulate North Dakota from the power of out-of-state banks
and corporations. In addition to founding the state-owned
Bank of North Dakota and
North Dakota Mill and Elevator (both still in existence), the NPL established a state-owned railroad line (later sold to the
Soo Line Railroad).
Anti-corporate laws were passed that virtually prohibited a corporation
or bank from owning title to land zoned as farmland. These laws, still
in force today, after having been upheld by both State and Federal
courts, make it almost impossible to foreclose on farmland, as even
after foreclosure, the property title cannot be held by a bank or
mortgage company.
A round of federal construction projects began in the 1950s, including the
Garrison Dam and the
Minot and
Grand Forks Air Force bases.
[23]
There was a boom in oil exploration in western North Dakota in the
1980s, as rising petroleum prices made development profitable.
[24] The original
North Dakota State Capitol burned to the ground on December 28, 1930, and was replaced by a
limestone faced
art deco skyscraper that still stands today.
[25]
Thank you
Dakota Steel Art ~ DSA
Designers of Stainless Steel Wind Spinners
