I have good news and bad news. First: the bad news—we are living in troubled times. However, that’s not really news. As a historian, I assure you, people have always been living in troubled times. Now: the good news—I have seen the future, and things are looking up. I see the future each year as students from around the state participate in the National History Day in North Dakota contest.

Students and teachers from Elgin-New Leipzig Public School participated in National History Day in North Dakota on April 7, 2017.

The state contest is affiliated with the National History Day contest that takes place in College Park, Maryland, in June. Similar to a science fair, the national contest has been around since the 1970s. If you ever need proof that the kids are alright, I encourage you to visit the National History Day website and review some of the past contest entries. I think you’ll agree with me that these kids are ready to take on the world.

Exhibit Entry, Galileo, from the 2018 National History Day in North Dakota State Competition, Junior Group Exhibit, by Abigale Berger and Ruby Brunn of Dickinson Middle School.

Exhibit Entry, Tragedy of the Great Fire and Triumph of Skyscraper City, from the 2019 National History Day Contest. 1st Place Senior Group Exhibit.

We work with teachers across the state all year to plan the state contest held each April. Workshops for educators and students in grades 6-12 provide a general overview of the program. We break things down into digestible parts that include selecting a topic, conducting historical research, and creating a contest entry. Entry categories include papers, documentaries, websites, performances, or exhibits. Students can work individually or in groups of up to five students. They compete to qualify for school, regional, state, and national contests. We also provide training to help students do more in-depth research, and better understand what our judges are looking for.

Documentary Entry, Echo of Falling Water: The Inundation of Celilo Falls, from the 2019 National History Day Contest. 1st Place Senior Group Documentary.

I’m so passionate about this program because students learn a variety of skills through National History Day, including strengthening their reading, research, and writing abilities. They select a historical topic they are personally interested in, which helps make history relevant and exciting. They flex their creativity muscles in developing an entry for the category of their choice. Research skills help with critical thinking and a build a more rigorous framework to analyze information. If they choose to work in a group, they learn collaboration skills. Explaining their work to adult judges helps them develop communication skills.

Performance Entry, Territorial Diplomacy: Seo Hui’s Compromise and Demands for the Goryeo Dynasty, from the 2018 National History Day Contest. 1st Place Senior Group Performance.

If you are a parent, student, or educator who would like to learn more about participating in National History Day in North Dakota, please contact me, Dani Stuckle, at dlstuckle@nd.gov or 701.328.2794. Our pool of judges includes a wide-range of professional backgrounds. Judges work in teams where seasoned judges help new judges learn the ropes. Contact me as soon as possible to be added to the 2020 judge roster. The state contest will be on Friday, April 17, 2020 at the ND Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck. The contest is open to the public.

If you need to know that our future is in good hands, come check these entries out. You’ll go away feeling very reassured that things will be okay. Learn more at history.nd.gov or NDStudies.gov.

As I noted in a post last year, a museum preparator handles objects from storage to display, ensuring they are safe and secure while allowing the public to have the optimal viewing experience. And, preparators have to be ready…in other words, prepared…for anything.

Sometimes you never know what is going to pop up. No matter how much you plan there seems to always be one thing or another that is going to be a challenge. That does make the day go by quicker, though!

Sometimes things happen that are unexpected. Like the roof being torn off one of our artifact storage buildings during a June 2018 storm, and water everywhere. A temporary wall was needed to protect artifacts, and cleanup was necessary from the debris. We ended up building a plastic sheeting wall, until the ceiling could be closed up and a more permanent fix could be found. This picture shows a little more natural light than what is recommended.

I created a hands-on experience in our Treehouse exhibit for young visitors. This was a project that evolved over time as I found more items. Used in this build:

• Blackhawk helicopter engine repair cage
• Salvage fireplace insert
• Gauges from state surplus
• Sewing machine parts
• A broken back check valve from my sprinklers
• Various acetylene torch apparatus
• An original boiler gauge from the State Capitol building
• Various handles from obsolete shop equipment
• Authentic train CB radio
• Various pipe and plumbing supplies

To create our latest Governors Gallery exhibit, we were tasked with coming up with a design that was modern in feel, “easy” to produce, and could be reused from exhibit to exhibit if needed. This is the scale production of the design for our aluminum upright signage.

Hmmm, how to get an artifact — in this case, a fire wagon, now on exhibit in The Horse in North Dakota — that was too long onto a platform, which was the only way to get it into the museum? The solution was to use the forklift to raise the front with the back on the platform (then drive forward with the forklift and set it down once it was on the main level). Not so bad, but it did take many spotters to make sure that all was going according to plan.

In this photo from Camp Hancock State Historic Site in Bismarck, I am standing on the newly installed rough cut white oak boards sourced from northern Minnesota. It was a challenge to find the thickness, width, and species of wood that would be consistent with the original build. The boards I found are actually used in the trucking industry to deck trailers hauling heavy equipment.

If I do my job right no one should notice — but sometimes they do, and that’s the best!

January conjures up images of cold, snowy days, hockey season, and the excitement of a new year. It is also the time our nation pauses to remember an icon of civil rights and racial equality, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Born on January 15, 1929, King’s birthday is observed as a federal holiday on the third Monday in January to recognize the contributions he made to American history. To honor the holiday, it seems fitting to examine State Archives collection items related to Dr. King.

The State Archives preserves the papers of North Dakota governors, and two former governors — George Sinner and Ed Schafer — have materials related to a commission appointed to coordinate MLK Day observances in the state. Sinner’s papers also hold correspondence and materials related to the first observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in North Dakota in 1986, when it became a federal holiday.

One letter from Sinner to Pastor Dan Rothwell of Fargo’s First Assembly of God Church commended the church for having gospel music artist Jessy Dixon appear at the church’s MLK Day event. Murcie Poplar, president of the Children’s Art Institute in Gary, Indiana, sent Gov. Sinner a gift of the Candle Prayer, a commemorative candle created for the holiday to be lit across the nation and world. The original gift was damaged in transport to North Dakota and a replacement was sent.¹

Our newspapers on microfilm provide insight into how local media covered King’s life and influence, including his assassination on April 4, 1968. For example, the April 5 edition of the Grand Forks Herald provided a bold banner headline and pictures. The Jamestown Sun also provided prominent coverage of King’s assassination. Interestingly, the Sun did not cover much of King’s Aug. 28, 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, though given that mining accidents in Utah and Montana occurred in late August 1963, and that King’s civil rights movement activities were largely focused in the eastern part of the United States, this event did not garner the same level of attention in North Dakota.²

The well-known magazine Ebony published a biography of King shortly after his death with many poignant pictures. Ebony has a connection to North Dakota through one-time editor Era Bell Thompson, who grew up in Driscoll, graduated from Bismarck High School, attended the University of North Dakota, and received the governor’s Rough Rider Award.³ Another book in our library stacks, House Divided: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King by Lionel Lokos (1968), represents an early analysis of King as a civil rights activist. Both titles are available in the reading room during our regular business hours.

In addition, our film collection contains an interesting segment where WDAY in Fargo interviews the Rev. Charles Hughes, a priest in the Fargo Diocese, about the King assassination and the legacy of King’s work. Hughes marched with King in Washington in 1963 and noted that what King feared was “the spiritual death of America through racism,” and that King felt that if his death could prevent that spiritual death, it would be worth it.⁴ This represented a fine example of how one North Dakotan reflected upon the tragic event.

While the State Archives does not have as much on Dr. King compared with other institutions in the nation, we do have an assortment of materials that inform how North Dakota reflected upon King’s life and work, and how earlier generations commemorated his legacy. Despite being removed geographically from the major events of the civil rights movement, important figures like Era Bell Thompson and Judge Ronald Davies (who presided over the Little Rock Nine case) have strong connections to our state. If you visit the ND Heritage Center & State Museum, you can view additional struggles for civil rights, such as the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, in our exhibits.

¹ Governor George A. Sinner to Pastor Dan Rothwell, January 20, 1986; Murcie L. Poplar to Governor George A. Sinner, December 2, 1985; Governor George A. Sinner to Murcie L. Poplar, December 11, 1985, in George A. Sinner Records, Collection #31602, Box 147, Folder 5, State Archives, State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck.

² Grand Forks Herald, April 5, 1968; Jamestown Sun, April 5-6, 1968; Jamestown Sun, August 29, 1963.

³ Kathie Ryckman Anderson, “Era Bell Thompson: A North Dakota Daughter,” North Dakota History: Journal of the Northern Plains 49, no. 4 (fall 1982): 11–18.

⁴ Charles Hughes talks with WDAY, April 5, 1968, WDAY-TV, Collection #10351, Core #02446, Segment #00017, State Archives, State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck.

What makes compelling exhibit text? I just employed one strategy: opening with a question. Well-crafted exhibits tell stories — both visually through artifacts and photos, and with words by using vivid, concise language to convey colorful, informative histories to our audience.

Ideally, you want the viewer to pause long enough to look, read, reflect, and feel a connection with your topic. Does that anecdote remind them of something a family member told them, or that artifact look just like one in their grandparents’ house? Or, does the exhibit allow the audience to enter a world far removed from their own — either by going back in time, or by exploring a different culture — and yet find a connection through empathizing with a story character, or just from seeing the look in a photographed person’s eyes?

One of my favorite photos of State Historical Society staff, Sept. 5, 1926. Can you relate to the people in the photo? What stories does this image tell? SHSND SA 00200-6x8-00287

When I travel, I like to stop in museums for exhibit text ideas. In this label from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, look at the last paragraph. What is more compelling, saying, “Most of the gold was stolen by thieves,” or, as they do, “Most of the gold was hacked away by plunderers who desecrated the burial”?

In 2018 I viewed the fantastic Stampede exhibit at the Denver Art Museum depicting a broad range of animals in art. In this label titled “Menagerie,” the text is concise, engaging, and clear — and also translated into Spanish for additional audience inclusion.

Currently, our State Museum’s Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples features select quotes and audio of several Indigenous languages. In a similar vein, I loved this painting title at Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, but can’t imagine routinely proofreading text in four languages (Catalan, Spanish, English, and French).

This fall I was privileged to draft the exhibit text for our current Prairie Post Office exhibit in the James E. Sperry Gallery. This exhibit is unique in that it is based on a book by the same name, written by K. Amy Phillips and Steven R. Bolduc, published by NDSU Press. The exhibit follows the basic structure of the book and incorporates contemporary photography by Wayne Gudmundson, but also adds artifacts and archival photos and whittles the book text way, way down into digestible exhibit labels. Each chapter received about 150 words, not much longer than this paragraph. I tried to take the major themes of the book and add questions, examples, and surprising facts and ideas I learned thanks to the authors’ research.

Exhibit panels from The Prairie Post Office, on view through 2021.

Finalizing the exhibit text was a team effort: members of our editorial and design team, exhibits team, collections staff, and the book authors all reviewed the text and offered feedback. Just like sustaining life in rural communities — the major theme of this exhibit — creating an exhibit takes a village.

I invite you to come view The Prairie Post Office, spend time (briefly) reading, and let us know what you think.

The State Historical Society of North Dakota owns and preserves 57 state historic sites. Some are well-known staffed sites with buildings and interpreters, while others are lesser known remote sites. For many people, the Cannonball Stage Station probably falls into the latter category. Located about 15 miles southeast of Carson or 18 miles southwest of Raleigh in Grant County, the site is situated off 53rd Avenue SW and is bound by the Cannonball River and plowed farmland. During summer 2019, two new historic interpretive panels were added to the site.

This site overview displays the wooden sign erected by the State Historical Society in 1974 and the two new interpretive signs added in August 2019.

Historic features at the site consist of three depressions marking buildings from the Cannonball Stage Station while it was in operation from 1877 to 1880.

Still photo from drone footage taken in October 2018 by Research Archaeologist Timothy Reed. Historic features are identified with arrows.

The arrows at the top mark two dugouts believed to be from a log building and another unknown structure. The arrow at the bottom identifies the rectangular outline of the barn. Modern features include a sheltered picnic area. After gold was confirmed in the Black Hills by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s Army Expedition of 1874 and a treaty opened the area to Euro-Americans, a road was desired to move people and supplies to the area. Bismarck was a favored rail end, and the Bismarck to Deadwood Stage Trail was established to move people, mail, and freight to the Black Hills.

The Northwestern Express, Stage, and Transportation Company and several other independent freighters began operating out of Bismarck in 1877. On average, the journey to Deadwood lasted around 40 hours and encompassed 200 miles. Stages ran from weekly, to biweekly, to triweekly, and eventually daily. The fare was around $23.

The Cannonball Stage Station was the fifth stop along the Bismarck to Deadwood Trail. Several stations on the trail were equipped to be overnight stops and provided meals, but most stations were just places for stage drivers to get a fresh team of horses and for passengers to stretch their legs. The Cannonball Stage Station was presumably one of the latter. While stage stations were typically crude structures, they offered respite for weary travelers and a break from the weather, close quarters, and other elements faced on the journey.

The Weller stage stop, located in McLean County, Dakota Territory, ca. 1883–89, is an example of a standard stage station at the time. As it was bad etiquette to rest your head on another passenger, travelers had to sleep upright in the passenger coaches. While most stage stations offered only a dirt floor to rest on, breaks were presumably a welcome interruption in travel, regardless of amenities. SHSND SA A4193-00001

Passenger coaches on the Bismarck-Deadwood Stage Trail were most often Concord coaches, usually drawn by four horses, or sometimes six for rough terrain. The coaches were constructed for rough travel and built to endure strain. Travel on the Bismarck-Deadwood Stage Trail was generally safe. Dangers included weather, prairie fire, and stage robbery. Outriders and shotgun messengers were employed to ward off “road agents” (bandits) from attacking the stage line after a string of holdups during the summer of 1877. Outriders rode in front and behind the wagon. Shotgun messengers rode beside the driver and were well armed. The term “riding shotgun” was derived from shotgun messengers.

A driver sat at the front of the wagon with his legs braced on the “dashboard.” Mail and light baggage were usually carried on top and held in place by an iron roof rail and ropes. Heavier baggage was usually carried on the rear. Some passengers, at their own risk, rode on top of the coach. Historian Harold E. Briggs records passengers describing a trip on a stagecoach as “not unlike the swell of the ocean.” SHSND SA 0097-46

The Bismarck-Deadwood operated commercially until 1880. The trail and the Cannonball Stage Station were abandoned when railroad expansion reached Pierre. Ruts from the wagon trains can still be seen in some places, including at the Bismarck-Deadwood Stage Trail Historic Marker site east of Flasher. For another view of the Cannonball Stage Station site, check out Timothy Reed’s past blog that includes drone footage filmed in October 2018.

If you ever catch me walking up and down the halls while shaking, twisting, turning, or just generally moving around an object in my hands — congratulations, you’ve met paleontology’s human gyroscope! Paleontology doesn’t own an actual gyroscope — a spinning device that can be rotated many different directions — so we resort to human hands instead. What would this be used for?

When making a casting, a gyroscope can be used to save material by making that casting hollow. Rather than filling up a mold with plastic (a waste of expensive materials), just the outer wall of the mold can be coated. This also gives us the added bonus of being able to measure out weights (steel pellets) to add to the plastic to achieve the weight of the original object. If weights are added, then it is extremely important to keep that gyroscopic motion going, or else you end up with a weeble-wobble object that’s heavy on one end (because all the weight sinks down while the plastic hardens).

Becky mixing glue. Mixing mixing mixing!

Here I am mixing up a batch of glue (butvar-76 plastic dissolved in acetone). You can see the fume hood (window) behind me to make sure all the potential chemical fumes go far, far away. Mixing up a thin version (consolidant) is easy — just pour into our magnetic mixer and away we go! Mixing glue, however, is tricky, and aerobic. You have to KEEP MOVING the bottles for a good hour, or else the not-quite-dissolved plastic sinks down to the bottom of the bottle and sits as an immoveable clump. Then, the next time someone tries to squeeze glue from the jug, they get a squirt of very liquid acetone — while all the glue stays in the bottle.

Some of our behind-the-scenes work is glamorous. Fossils! Prep work! Artwork! Other times, my work is just the necessary tasks that have to happen to make sure those glamorous projects keep going.