Since the name of our agency is the State Historical Society of North Dakota, I’m sure many people believe we are only interested in “old” things. But that’s not true. We are just as committed to preserving today, and even tomorrow, especially in this digital age.

The North Dakota State Archives has a vast and robust 2D collection stretching from the Dakota Territory days of the 1860s, ’70s, and ’80s into the mid-20th century. Now, in addition to those eras, we are on a mission to gather and preserve materials from the 1970s to the present. These materials might not feel historic, but they are crucial to sharing the story of North Dakota and capturing everyday lives here for future generations.

While visiting my parents recently, I pulled out hundreds, maybe thousands, of photographs my mother had taken of me and my siblings while we were growing up in the 1980s, ’90s, and early 2000s. As I flipped through the many memories, I began to feel the same awe I experience when looking at similarly themed photos in the State Archives collections. Both sets of photos showed people dressed in their Sunday best, dolled up for dances, attending community events, standing with their siblings, and students in desks at school. I decided to gather some of these everyday photos of my family to donate to the State Archives so that people in 60, 80, or 100 years can experience the same awe.

Everyday photos from yesterday? You may wonder why these would be important to the State Archives. But we make it our mission to preserve and share stories from all North Dakotans from all time periods. Just because something is recent doesn’t mean we shouldn’t save it. We, as a society, must commit to preserving the now to ensure future generations will understand the past and see themselves in history.

So what kinds of materials are we looking for? Photos, videos, posters, programs, yearbooks, letters, diaries, screenshots of instant messages, emails, social media—anything that documents the life of North Dakotans. Below are a few of the categories we are particularly keen to collect.

1. Family moments: These could be holidays, birthdays, family portraits, and special moments. They capture cultural traditions, relationships, and celebrations through the decades.

The author with her father welcomes her new baby brother in 1996. This photo offers a glimpse into 1990s fashion, newborn care, and the hospital room design of the decade. SHSND MSS 11674-00059

2. Sporting events: Whether youth leagues, high school championships, or amateur events, sports photos show what we played, how we played, and the stylish uniforms we wore.

IMCA Stock Cars lined up for the feature race at the 2024 Dakota Classic Modified Tour in Mandan. This photo captures what North Dakotans did for fun in 2024 and offers future researchers a look at car styles, paint schemes, and local culture. SHSND MSS 11674-00103

3. Daily life: These are time capsules of everyday experiences, showing the clothing, furniture, and social interactions of the era.

The author’s mom and brother enjoy an evening bike ride in 1987. Photos like this help us study 1980s house styles, landscaping trends, light fixtures, window designs, and, of course, everyday fashion. SHSND MSS 11674-00071

4. Community events, organizations, and businesses: These could include parades, festivals, church picnics, 4-H meetings, civic clubs, even street views and business fronts. They represent the spirit and values of our towns and neighborhoods.

The author poses with her 4-H demonstration “Cookie Dough To Go.” This photo offers a glimpse into early 2000s youth programs, showcasing 4-H activities, uniforms, classroom setup, and cookie recipes of the time. SHSND MSS 11674-00004

5. Personal perspectives on major events: These are newsworthy happenings as seen through your lens. What did it feel like at the time? How was it experienced locally? Such materials personalize and deepen our connections to history.

A family sandbags their home during the 1997 Red River flood in Fargo. This photo shows more than just flood mitigation—it documents how families came together in a time of crisis and provides a snapshot of neighborhood layout, vehicles, clothing, and daily life in 1997. SHSND MSS 11674-00069

One day, people will want to know what volleyball looked like in 2007, how North Dakotans protected homes from floods in 1997, or what families did for fun in 1987. What we experience and participate in today is important to document. Take a look through your family photos (both print and digital) to enjoy the nostalgia and see today’s history. For more information on donating to the North Dakota State Archives’ collections, visit history.nd.gov/data/donate_archives.html.

This map of North Dakota published by the George F. Cram Company in 1922 shows the former towns of Yucca and Whynot. OCLC 378465128

Recently, the North Dakota State Archives received permission from Doug Wick to digitize his 1988 book “North Dakota Place Names” and make it accessible on Digital Horizons. This invaluable resource includes nearly every place name in North Dakota and features the present-day county, location, and history of each place. 

To celebrate online access for Wick’s book, here are five tales of North Dakota place names. 

1. Yucca (Oliver County)

According to Wick, the town of Yucca was established in 1901 near the Heart Ranch trading post. Yucca was named for the area’s abundant yucca lilies. The local history book “Oliver County: 1885-1985” notes that Yucca was home to the first dairy operation and cheese factory in the area. Yucca also hosted a rodeo for several years, and the rodeo grounds even had a bowery for dancing! Though the yucca lilies remain, unfortunately Yucca’s post office closed in 1945.

Yucca Rodeo advertisement from the Bismarck Tribune, June 23, 1926, p. 2

Martin Old Dog Cross rides Going Some at the Yucca Rodeo, July 1927. After his rodeo days, Cross would go on to serve multiple terms during the period from 1944 to 1956 as chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes. SHSND SA 11517-00418

2. Kidville (Ransom County)

In 1898, Andrew J. Olson, Alfred Thompson, and a group of young men left Fort Ransom and established a rival town called Kidville. “Merchants in the older town coined the name to note that most of the residents in the new town were teenagers or very young adults,” Wick points out in his book. As noted in, “Fort Ransom Area History, 1878-1978,” the first telephone service in the area started in Kidville (kids … always so up on the new technology). The last business in Kidville closed its doors in 1919 (perhaps all the kids returned home).

3. Bachelor’s Grove (Grand Forks County)

This North Dakota town was literally called Bachelor’s Grove because the seven men who settled there in the late 1870s were bachelors. The meaning of the town’s name didn’t stick around for long—the bachelors married and started families. The townsite was abandoned in the late 1880s due to the railroad’s expansion in other parts of the county; however, the area remained an active social and recreational site for decades. A large pavilion for dancing, orchestras, and bands was on the site, followed by a skating rink, and eventually a youth Bible camp. Fun fact: Gov. Eli Shortridge (the first to live in what is now the Former Governors’ Mansion) farmed in the area and was often referred to as the “old grey farmer from Bachelor’s Grove,” according to the Bowbells Bulletin-Tribune. For the record, Shortridge was not a bachelor.

Grand Forks Herald article about the annual Bachelor’s Grove picnic, June 21, 1916, p. 10

4. Whynot (Grand Forks County)

Whynot was situated in the very southeast corner of Grand Forks County. The town was established in 1881 as the location of a general store owned by Erik K. Larsgaard. He was often asked why he set up shop there, to which his response was “why not?” Thus, Whynot got its name.

5. Sturgis (Morton County)

South Dakota’s 84th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally recently came to a close. Although the Sturgis in South Dakota is more well known than Sturgis, North Dakota, the latter predates it. According to Wick, this Mandan predecessor was established in 1877 near Fort Abraham Lincoln and named for Lt. J.G. Sturgis, who died at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Meanwhile, the South Dakota Sturgis, named for Sturgis’ father, Maj. Samuel D. Sturgis, was established in 1878.

Territory of Dakota map, General Land Office, 1879. Zoom in on "Morton" and you will see Sturgis. OCLC 28283598

Bismarck Weekly Tribune article on the founding of Morton County’s Sturgis City, April 27, 1877, p. 4

Lt. John Sturgis of the 7th Cavalry, namesake of Sturgis, Dakota Territory. SHSND SA 00091-00548

Did you know? The North Dakota State Archives staff are full of fun facts about this state’s history. That’s because we work so closely with collections, books, newspaper articles, and other documentation related to the state. When we discover something bizarre, interesting, humorous, or unique, we have the tools to dig deeper, and we love to share our findings. More proof that it’s a lot of fun to work at the State Archives!

Read on for the first installment of our staff’s favorite fun facts about North Dakota.

Ashley Thronson, Reference Specialist

While I have learned many things about the history of North Dakota since I started working for the State Archives, one of the most memorable tidbits was reading about a memorial adopted by the territorial Legislature in 1879 related to the division of Dakota Territory. A delegation traveled to Washington, D.C., where territorial Rep. John Q. Burbank of Jamestown petitioned Congress with a proposal to divide Dakota Territory along an east-west line. Compared to the current north-south division that created the two states of North Dakota and South Dakota, an east-west split would certainly have been different! This fact also got me thinking of how the territorial divisions impacted and influenced cities and communities. What would Bismarck, Fargo, and other North Dakota towns have looked like in an East Dakota or West Dakota?

Map of Dakota Territory by district, 1884. SHSND SA 978.402 R186m 1884

Matt Ely, Photo Archivist

My favorite North Dakota fun fact is that the Ward County Courthouse fielded men’s and women’s basketball teams in 1909-1910. The formation of the teams was announced on Nov. 18, 1909, in the Minot Daily Optic. The State Archives collections include a picture postcard of the men’s team. Although I have been unable to find the team’s schedule yet, a note on the back of the postcard states that they had a record of five wins and zero losses going into their final game against Minot High School. In the future, I hope to find the result of their final game as well as any information I can on the women’s team.

The men’s basketball team from Minot was commonly referred to as the Court House basketball team, as evidenced in this image, circa 1909. SHSND SA 2006-P-012-00015

Lindsay Meidinger, Head of Archival Collections and Information Management

In 1911, a standpipe and tank were built on the North Dakota Capitol grounds in Bismarck. This water tower was witness to historical moments during the formative years of the state, including the 1930 Capitol fire. Recently, the State Archives received a donation of a photograph of the new capitol building. In the background of the image, the same water tower is visible. Utilizing the State Archives’ online resource, Advantage Archives, we learned that the water tower was “unriveted and taken down” in 1957. Not only was the date it was disassembled discovered, but we also found out that the water tower was sent to Hannaford for its first municipal water system. And it still stands there today!

The water tower looks on as the original North Dakota Capitol burns, December 28, 1930. SHSND SA A3522-00001

Jayne and Sally Strawsine on the North Dakota Capitol grounds in 1948. Notice the water tower to the right of the Capitol building. SHSND SA 11567-00004

These days you’ll find the original state Capitol water tower in Hannaford.

The North Dakota State Archives is the official repository of the historic records of state and local government entities in North Dakota. These records have permanent value because they document the organization, functions, and transactions of state and local governments. For example, after each administration, the Office of the Governor transfers all permanent records with historic value to the North Dakota State Archives for preservation. These records may contain proclamations, speeches, correspondence, executive orders, and files related to legislation. The North Dakota State Archives contains records from the governors of Dakota Territory through Governor Jack Dalrymple, who left office in December 2016.

As discussed in my last blog, What in the World is an Electronic Records Archivist?, management of digital records and their preservation is an extremely important and pressing issue in the world of archives. Archivists have been preserving paper and other resources for hundreds of years. Now records continue to shift to digital formats, and the shift is happening fast! This shift can be seen in the types of files in the different governors’ records.

From the territorial days and through the end of Governor Allen I. Olson’s time in office (1981-1984), all records were paper. We saw digital records begin with Governor George Sinner’s time in office (1985-1992), although it was actually only just a few floppy disks. The increase of digital files continues to be seen through the records of governors Ed Schafer (1992-2000), John Hoeven (2000-2010), and Jack Dalrymple (2010-2016).  As digital files increase, paper files decrease. Just 40 years ago, when Governor Art Link’s (1973-1981) records were transferred from his office to the State Archives, we received 334 cubic feet of paper records. Last year, when we received Governor Jack Dalrymple’s records, we only received 58 cubic feet of paper; however, we received thousands of digital files! With this trend, we might have more empty shelf space in our storage areas, but our digital shelf space will continue to fill and grow rapidly.

Researchers are able to visit the Orin G. Libby Reading Room at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum to study the paper records, and in the future, online access will available for an increasing number of digital files.

These records are great for researching the state’s leaders and government happenings, but they also provide an interesting history of various technologies used throughout Dakota Territory and North Dakota.  The following images illustrate this well:

This first image is a Thanksgiving proclamation by Newton Edmonds, second governor of Dakota Territory, written in a beautiful, swooping handwriting.

Newton Edmonds 1864 Thanksgiving proclamation (SHSND SA 30076)

The second image is a Thanksgiving proclamation made by Governor Jack Dalrymple in 2013. This proclamation was created digitally, printed, signed by the Governor and Secretary of State, scanned, and then transferred to the North Dakota State Archives.

Jack Dalrymple 2013 Thanksgiving proclamation (SHSND SA 32346)

My, how times have changed! Although I love looking at the beautiful handwriting, I can’t imagine living without a computer to type documents! It will be interesting to see how technology continues to change and what steps archivists will take to ensure the records are available for future generations.

Think about how much you use your cell phone or computer in a day. You create countless photographs, text messages, emails, Facebook posts, blog posts, tweets—and the list goes on. In the past, these types of daily documentation, such as letters, photographs, journaling, and commentary on daily life, were harder to create, and more permanent. Do you have a plan of what to do with the huge amount of historic data you create every day? Or will it just be lost with time? Are we entering an age where our future generations will not be able to research our current lifestyle, culture, or heritage?

Currently, archivists are trying to establish standards, policies, and methods to preserve the massive amount of data the world is rapidly creating. Not only is the amount of data an issue; so is the pace at which technologies are changing. At the North Dakota State Archives, we are working to preserve digital records created by state agencies, organizations, and private donors.

That’s where I come in!

This is me, Lindsay Schott, electronic records archivist for the state of North Dakota!

As the first electronic records archivist for the state of North Dakota, I am responsible for ensuring that digital files created by state agencies are preserved and accessible for future generations.

I am currently working on creating policies and procedures to establish a digital archives repository. This repository will allow me to track file formats and add descriptive terms to the files.  These descriptive terms, will allow researchers to search and access digital records online through a portal in the future.

This is a glimpse of just a few varieties of the external media on which state agency electronic records are stored.

The State Archives has accepted manuscripts and other types of records since its inception. With the advent of new technology, that includes electronic files. That’s what I work with, the “new” technology, whether it is a file saved on some object from the 1970s or ’80s, or whether it is a current mp3 or pdf file. On any given day, I could find a collection housed in the State Archives that contains 3.5-inch diskettes, 5.25-inch floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, or other types of external storage devices. Or, a state agency can contact me with digital files that have reached their retention period, and we work to transfer these files through a file sharing site. These collections contain the digital photographs, documents, videos, audio files, websites, emails, and more created by North Dakota state agencies. As you can imagine, many different file types have been used when creating electronic records. Just think about the all of the different programs and versions of software that have been around since the beginning of computers. For instance, Apple generally updates the iOS on iPhones a few times in one year. Imagine having to track these updates for all types of records! It is my job to ingest these electronic records into a trusted digital repository.

Progression of records throughout the history of North Dakota. Left: Record books in storage at the Stark County Courthouse in Dickinson, 1937 (30573-00119, detail). Middle: Box of floppy disks waiting to be ingested into the digital repository. These were created in the early 1990s. Right: A screenshot of digital records in the digital repository. Now, instead of taking up shelf space, records take up lots of server space! Click image for larger view.

Keeping up with technology is just one of the many obstacles that electronic records archivists face. Format and media obsolescence are two very large hurdles standing in the way of digital record preservation. As the technologies change, file formats, storage media, software, and hardware go out of style and use. Electronic record archivists must make sure that these obsolescent file formats are migrated to a file format that is better suited for preservation. That is one of the reasons why we have many older computers around the State Archives. In order to ensure we can get the files off old storage devices, we need to have these older computers, because they can read older storage media. For example, computers sold today don’t have a 5.25-inch floppy drive. So, we have maintained several computer towers from the time when these floppy drives were a necessity. In the future, we may have to keep several towers that have USB ports to make certain we have the capability to read USB drives.

These are a few of the old computers we have at the State Archives to ensure we are able to access old external media.

It is crucial that electronic records archivists take action immediately. If we don’t, the information found in the files may not remain available due to the rapid, changing pace of technology.

When people find out I’m an archivist, I am often greeted with a very puzzled look and usually another question—like, “What’s that?”

On any day, you can find me processing collections of documents, records, photographs, or moving image materials. As archivists, one of our main priorities is to make sure items are stored and organized properly in order to maintain the longest record life possible. In this blog, I’ll discuss processing a large manuscript collection that includes all of these items.

Over the past year, I and other archivists at the State Historical Society picked up personal papers, research, and records belonging to Frank Vyzralek, North Dakota’s first state archivist. Vyzralek was a passionate historian who researched a great variety of topics in relation to North Dakota such as baseball, beer, the city of Bismarck, crime, mills and elevators, places in North Dakota, railroads, and steamboats.

When Vyzralek’s donation arrived at the State Archives, almost 400 feet of boxes contained loose papers, photographs, and audiovisual materials. We had to determine how to best organize and store this valuable collection.

The first step we took was to establish series for the different materials. In the archives world, a series is a group of similar records. The series we decided on were Research Files, Personal Papers, Photographs, and Audiovisual Materials. Within the series, we then created subseries and sub subseries that reflected the topics and types of records with each series.

Processed records from the Mill & Elevator Sub Subseries alphabetized and dated in archival folders

After the series, subseries, and sub subseries were established, we began the preliminary sorting. Most of the time, each box contained many different topics and types of records in no particular order. Along with the paper items, some boxes even had different types of artifacts like matchbooks and other collectables. These items will be offered to the Museum Division, because they are three-dimensional. This part of the processing took my colleague and I about three months to complete.

Newspaper clippings regarding mills and elevators in Burleigh County in chronological order

When we finished with the preliminary sort, we began a more in-depth process, where we tackled each subseries, organizing the records by location or chronologically. Vyzralek liked to use newspaper clippings in his research. For one sub subseries, for example Mills and Elevators, it took some time to organize the thousands of newspaper clippings in a way that would be useful to researchers who will use Vyzralek’s papers in the future. After eight months of alphabetizing and organizing chronologically, this part of the processing was complete. During this stage, we came across a few live bugs and spiders. It added some excitement (and screams) to the process.

Processing in progress on photographs

Once we were finished with the paper records, we began to process the photographs Vyzralek took or collected. Again, we had to decide how to organize the photographs in a way that would create the best accessibility for researchers. We thought it would be best to organize the photographs by those Vyzralek used for research and those that related to his personal life, such as family and school photos. Just as we did with papers, we organized the photographs by location and date. Topics in the research photos include railroad depots, postcards, aerials of towns, churches, breweries, and other buildings in North Dakota.

Hundreds of floppy disks from the Frank Vyzralek Collection

Vyzralek stored much of his research on floppy disks, which will also be in his collection. However, floppy disks are now obsolete. As we process the physical papers, we also have to harvest the files of his research off the floppy disks to make sure the digital files are accessible to researchers, too. This entails finding a floppy disk drive, scanning for viruses, and ensuring there are no changes to the file during the processing of the digital files. Digital files provide more accessibility to the collection.

We are still processing the Frank Vyzralek Collection, but it will be finished in spring 2016. Once processing is complete, there will be a finding aid available on our website (http://history.nd.gov/archives/manuscripts/inventory/10553.html) for researchers to use. This is just one of many rich collections of North Dakota history that can be researched in the State Archives.