There are times that the State Historical Society receives donations that have a wealth of history and information. These are the best kinds of donations, because they make interpretation and research easier and more valuable. One such recent donation is from Kurt Peterson. Kurt, raised in Bismarck, joined the US Army in 1980. During his unusual career path, he was in military intelligence, worked as a Russian linguist, served in the Gulf War, and was an interpreter and inspector for Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) and Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) treaties. These are some highlights from Kurt’s global adventures and the related objects he recently donated.

The Berlin Wall

In January 1990, while stationed at Augsburg, Germany, Kurt and a friend set off to Berlin to see the crumbling Berlin Wall, which had separated communist East Germany from West Berlin for 28 years. They parked near the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag and found some Berliners hammering on the wall. Kurt and his friend borrowed a bolt-cutting tool and cut pieces of the wall’s rebar. Then they borrowed the hammer and chisel and removed small painted pieces of the concrete wall.

Piece of the Berlin wall’s painted concrete and rebar.

Diplomatic Courier Duty

In 1972, the US State Department signed an agreement allowing the Soviets to have control over design and construction of the US Embassy in Moscow. Ground broke for the building in 1979. After two years of construction a team of security specialists discovered that the Soviets had integrated eavesdropping devices into the infrastructure of the Embassy. By 1987, the US Government decided to refurbish the existing structure using materials shipped in from Helsinki, Finland. Kurt applied for courier duty with the State Department . After a week’s training in April 1990, he flew to Finland. He completed 10 trips from Helsinki to Moscow, about 750 miles, and traffic hit top speeds of 40-45 miles per hour. During each trip, a wire with the lead seal was placed on the latch closing the truck and only opened after the truck arrived in Moscow to unload its contents. This was to ensure no one tampered with the building supplies en route to Moscow.

Kurt Peterson’s diplomatic passport and two customs seals used to secure supply trucks traveling from Helsinki to Moscow. He kept these seals after the trucks were opened in Moscow.

Gulf War

As a Russian linguist, Kurt never thought he would be deployed to Saudi Arabia.I In 1991, however, he worked with the Kuwaiti Army listening to Iraqi radio communications to determine their location.

Presentation flag given to Kurt by one of the Kuwaiti military personnel.

Group of four American and two Kuwaiti military members. Kurt is in the middle.

Inspections

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was signed on July 31, 1991, and entered into force at the end of 1994. START was the first treaty to call for reduction to the strategic nuclear missiles of the United States and Soviet Union. Kurt became a START inspector/interpreter for US inspection teams deployed to the former Soviet Union. He inspected treaty-related facilities and equipment and translated oral and written communication in Russian and English between diplomatic representatives. He also performed escort duties for the former Soviet Union inspection teams at US facilities.

Map of Russia with all of the inspections sites Kurt visited circled. Click map to see larger.

US and Russian identification badges.

We’re always seeking interesting objects related to North Dakota. Do you have a collection with a North Dakota connection to consider preserving at the State Historical Society of North Dakota? Please view our Collection Priority List and fill out a Potential Acquisition Questionnaire.

As a paleontologist, I have found that there are a few misconceptions about dinosaurs. Some of them have gone by the wayside when the research has been able to penetrate the media bombardment we face every day, while others have persisted for decades for a variety of reasons. One of these seemingly undying myths is the idea that oil comes from dinosaurs. This is an interesting idea that I believe stems from a pop culture phenomenon nearly 100 years old.

Most people have a basic understanding that oil comes from dead plants/animals/organic matter. However the misconception comes when thinking about which animals and plant remains helped create that oil. I believe a great deal of this misunderstanding comes from the Sinclair Oil symbol—a small, green, sauropod dinosaur named “Dino”. The reason for this symbol has nothing to do with where the oil is coming from, but rather has a more historical story.

Dino, the Sinclair Oil mascot trademarked in 1932, was practically ubiquitous across the United States after WWII.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, dinosaurs were big business. Museums across the eastern United States were scrambling to get the “best” skeleton and out-do other museums. They all wanted the biggest, most complete, fiercest, etc. This was the time of the infamous dinosaur wars. One of the prominent paleontologists at this time was Barnum Brown. He was the discoverer of Tyrannosaurus rex in 1902 (Osborn, 1905) and was a prolific fossil hunter. Some say he was the greatest dinosaur fossil collector ever. In the early 1900s, Brown had a relationship with the Sinclair Oil and Refining Corporation. He assisted in writing their promotional pamphlets and designing stamps in exchange for monetary support of his dinosaur collecting expeditions (Mitchell, 1998).

Images of Sinclair’s promotional and educational booklets handed out in the 1930s (Spence, 1966).

“To give better academic stature to its promotions, Sinclair financed for several years the dinosaur fossil search expeditions of Dr. Barnum Brown, then curator of fossil reptiles at the American Museum of Natural History,” (Spence, 1966).

Barnum Brown of the American Museum of Natural History, ready to depart on a bone hunting expedition in 1934 (Spence, 1966).

To capitalize on the popularity of dinosaurs, “Dino” was created as a marketing tool aimed at getting customers to believe that better oil came from older rocks. One of their marketing signs claimed it was “mellowed 80 million years” (Spence, 1966). The public equated Dino with power, endurance, and stamina (Spence, 1966). I’m sure those were qualities that Sinclair was happy to be branded with. Although the pamphlets and stamp books made reference to how oil was formed even before the dinosaurs existed, it seems the association of Dino and oil was too difficult to separate.

Graphic depicting how oil is formed (Chernicoff, 1995).

How oil actually forms:
When plants and animals living in the world’s oceans die, they sink to the ocean floor where their remains are eventually buried by sediment. Over time, as more of this organic matter is accumulated and buried deeper and deeper, it begins to change. Once certain pressures and temperatures are reached underground, the organic material changes into a substance called kerogen. As kerogen is buried even deeper, the increasing temperature and pressure transform it into hydrocarbons – the main constituents of crude oil and gas . The hydrocarbons will migrate through the pore spaces in rocks and accumulate in natural traps and pool together. It is these traps and pools that oil companies are searching for when they drill oil wells. It was this same process that occurred in North Dakota and formed the Bakken crude being drilled today (Nordeng, 2014).

Chernicoff, S., 1995, Geology, Worth Publishers, Inc., 593 pp.
Mitchell, W. J. T., 1998, The last dinosaur book, The University of Chicago Press, 321 pp.
Nordeng, S. H., 2014, Building the science for advancing oil and gas exploration and development in the Williston Basin: Geo News, v. 41, no. 1, p. 14-18.
Osborn, H. F., 1905, Tyrannosaurus and other Cretaceous carnivorous dinosaurs: American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin 21, p. 259-265.
Spence, H., 1966, A Great Name in Oil, Sinclair Through Fifty Years, F. W. Dodge Co. / McGraw Hill Inc., 104 pp.

As we are in the midst of the holiday season, the sights turn to snow, lit up houses, Christmas trees, and packed shopping malls. Our thoughts turn to time with family and friends, holiday parties, and gift giving. Often, this time is one that we reflect on past seasons and special gifts that brightened our childhoods and memories that will last a lifetime and beyond.

The vast collections of the State Archives provide many treasures and resources for understanding life in days gone by. It seems appropriate to consider items and collections that allow casual visitors and researchers opportunities to learn about how people in our area experienced the holiday season. We have a number of resources available related to the Christmas season that will generate curiosity and personal reflection.

Have you ever wondered what items your parents or grandparents may have had on their wish lists? Curious as to what items were available for possible gifts during Christmases past? We have catalogs from JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, and Sears that span several years. This is something many may remember doing as kids, circling the toys and other items we hoped would be waiting for us under the tree Christmas morning. These catalogs are wonderful resources to the material culture of preceding generations, illustrate changes in fashion, and provide insights into the economic history of our country. We also have an FAO Schwarz toy catalog for the fall and winter season of 1974-1975 that is full of unique toys, including the ones on the page image below.

One page featuring some history playsets in the 1974-1975 FAO Schwarz Fall & Winter catalog.

In addition to looking at our assortment of store catalogs, those curious as to what potential gifts made Christmas lists in past decades can also examine our extensive newspaper collection on microfilm. Advertisements for goods were a common sight in North Dakota newspapers. While our minds usually gravitate towards grocery items when considering such ads, other local businesses ran ads in the pages of their local paper announcing deals on clothes, toys, televisions, and many other items. Our newspapers are also a great resource for seeing what the communities in North Dakota did around the holidays in terms of events.

Greeting cards, whether homemade or store bought, are a common item associated with the Christmas season. Several of our collections contain examples of such cards and range from simple to very ornate. The Martin M. Stasney Papers (Series# 10630) contains an example of a child’s card, as Violette Stasney colored a Christmas postcard in crayon. Another example of a Christmas card comes from the Della (Moos) Schoepp Papers (Series# 11080) and is a large Christmas card that opens to a detailed pop-up Nativity scene.

Christmas postcard colored in by Violette Stasney, part of the Martin M. Stasney Papers (Series# 10630).

Front of Christmas card from the Della (Moos) Schoepp Papers (Series# 11080). Photo by Daniel Sauerwein.

Inside of Christmas card from the Della (Moos) Schoepp Papers (Series# 11080). Photo by Daniel Sauerwein.

Our holdings on Digital Horizons also provide some interesting Christmas related items. One example is from World War I, when the Gackle Republican ran an image on the front page of its December 14, 1917 issue featuring Santa Claus standing upon the world, passing out gifts to various children of the world, under the caption, “Santa Claus to all the world.” It is interesting to note that only the children of Allied nations are represented, clearly denoting that America is at war and that the enemy’s children are deemed not deserving of gifts at Christmas. This prime example of wartime propaganda during the Christmas season conveys the efforts to dehumanize citizens of the enemy nations and stands in stark contrast to the meaning of the season. The image also symbolizes that there were men fighting in the trenches during the season as well who were away from loved ones.

Front page of the December 14, 1917 issue of The Gackle Republican, featuring Santa Claus passing out gifts to the Allied children of the world.

Finally, while there is a lot of work that goes on in the Archives, we also make time to get in the holiday spirit by doing a little decorating and bringing out a staff favorite. This is my first Christmas with the State Historical Society. I was introduced to a tradition in the Archives of bringing out Olive, the other reindeer, who I have been told by fellow Reference Specialist Sarah Walker is a boy, was the creation of our State Archivist, Ann Jenks, and stands watch by the reference desk. He’s quite the character to say the least. Who says archivists can’t have a little fun?

Olive sends holiday greetings from the Archives. Photo by Daniel Sauerwein

I hope as you prepare your own activities for the holidays, you take some time to stop by and look at the treasures of Christmas past we have in our collections. We wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

The City of Robinson in Kidder County (about 30 minutes northeast of Steele), has a wonderful town hall that was constructed as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1935, the founding year of the WPA. I am writing a National Register of Historic Places nomination for this building. The WPA federal program had one mission – to put people back to work during a Depression that began in late 1929.

Robinson Hall, Main Street. Photo by Susan Quinnell.

Even though they had just incorporated in 1929, the town leaders of Robinson were able to get a WPA construction project funded and completed quickly. This was because they had already had a special election in October 1934 and passed a $2000 bond to initiate construction of the town hall, which would also feature an auditorium. Constructing a multi-purpose town hall was common at the time. They discussed the design with a Bismarck architect Herman M. Leonard. He designed the building with a bowstring truss that allowed the auditorium portion to have a 40’ x 90’ clear span. This wide open space with beautiful maple flooring was much appreciated in the ensuing decades, as it allowed events to flow smoothly. Basketball games could proceed with high throws and predictable passing. In the 1930s, schools often had auditoriums in the basements with low ceilings, water-damaged, uneven wood flooring, and large pillars. Oftentimes they were simply too small to allow full court movement. Large weddings and other celebrations occurred inside as well.

Current auditorium with original maple flooring and dropped ceiling. Photo by Susan Quinnell

More than 600 people attended the dedication ceremony on September 11, 1937. During the course of my research, this event presented a little mystery. Movies were held in the auditorium that day, yet records from the Northern Plains Electric Cooperative show that electricity didn’t arrive until 1942. So I thought there must have been an alternative power source. Further research uncovered a gas-powered contraption in a museum in Georgia that could project movies at the time and didn’t need electricity, so that seemed plausible. However, the current mayor of Robinson, Bill Bender found old newspaper articles stating that a man by the name of Ole Saltness came to Robinson in 1929 and owned a Philco generator, which produced enough power to provide electricity to a few neighbors, businesses, and the Robinson Hall. At that time, the load probably would have been little more than one or two low-wattage light bulbs per building. Instead of choking on gas fumes, the movie audience would cry “Ole, Ole!” if a fuse blew. Robinson Hall provides a glimpse into the quirks of small-town life in North Dakota during the New Deal era.

Do you remember your first childhood anatomy lesson?

“Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones…

The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone,
The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone,
The ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone,
Now shake dem skeleton bones.”

An internet search shows many variations of this song. The only thing that doesn’t vary is the order of connectivity: toe to foot, foot to ankle, ankle to leg, and so on.

I don’t remember when I first heard this little ditty, but I have always been fascinated by bones. It may have something to do with being born and raised on a farm where I was constantly surrounded by animals and animal bones.

The galleries in the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum provide a perfect venue for the study of the structure and function of the skeleton and bony structures, also known as osteology.

I decided this fall that it would be fun and educational to write a short presentation on basic bone structure. After a couple of false starts, I enlisted the aid of a friend for a Saturday afternoon search and recovery mission for bison bones. That afternoon’s antics would provide enough material for a separate story, but suffice to say we loaded a pickup with dry, weathered bison bones, unloaded them in my garage (to my wife’s dismay), and I began the search for connectivity; toe to foot to ankle, etc.

Internet sites such as “The Virtual Museum of Idaho” made this a fairly easy project. The “American bison” page (UWBM-35536 -- Bison bison) provides full-color, 360 degree views of each bone of a bison’s skeleton.

Rearticulated bison front limb

With the reference site and a garage half-full of bison bones, some assembly was required. As luck would have it, we had acquired all of the bones on our search to rearticulate the left front leg of a bison. The assembled and properly labeled bones don’t lend themselves to a catchy tune, however:

“The third phalange connects to the second phalange,
the second phalange connects to the first phalange,
the first phalange connects to the metacarpal,
Now shake dem bison bones.”

As all projects seem to do, this one grew and began to take on an educational aspect that I had not envisioned when I identified the first weathered “calcaneus” bone. (Check it out on the Idaho Museum site.)

Slide from “Bison in A Box” presentation

The more bones that I reassembled, the more I realized how the bones of the front leg of a bison resemble and mirror bones of the human arm. A couple of purchases of a human skeletal hand model and human foot model clearly illustrated this. By this time, a Powerpoint presentation was beginning to take shape, and more bison bones began to fit together. With time, a complete hind leg of a bison was also rearticulated and my fascination grew—this time with the comparison between the “wrist” joints of a human and the corresponding “ankle” joints of a bison.

The North Dakota Heritage Center is a perfect venue for this presentation, where comparisons between the skulls of Bison latifrons and Bison antiquus, the ancestors to the modern Bison bison, are on display.

Bison antiquus skeleton, Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples

A full, life-sized model of the Bison antiquus is fully assembled (rearticulated) and helps illustrate the story of Beacon Island in the Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples. You, as a visitor to the exhibit, can hum whatever version of the bone song you prefer as you study this model.

The basic premise of bone identification has continued to evolve since I plucked that first bison bone from the prairie sod. My research has uncovered many uses for one of the newly discovered bones. The astragalus bone (one of the “ankle” bones of sheep, goats, bison, etc.) was used in Mongolian games of chance, was a useful component of friction fire-starting, and was the basis of a child’s game (“jacks”).

Join us at the Heritage Center as we continue to explore this bony topic and finalize our presentation, “Bison in A Box.”

If I could carry a tune a whole new genre of songs could be sung about bison bones:

“Astragalus connected to calcaneus,
Calcaneus connected to the tibia,
Tibia connected to the femur
And on and on it goes.”

I am one of the fortunate people who get to work with and protect some of the treasures of our state. As it turns out, a few of those treasures are a little unusual. The State Historical Society began formal collecting efforts in the early 1900s. In the intervening century, what is now the Museum Division has assembled a collection of a little over 74,000 artifacts (this does not include the holdings of our other collecting divisions). With a collection of that size I still find things that surprise me, even after four years of working here.
 

1. Patsy the Calf (2010.52.1)

Born on a farm in the Williston area, Patsy is a unique calf. If you look closely at her chest, you’ll see a twin that never separated while she was in the womb, leaving a mouth and undeveloped eyes under her neck and a large bulge on her rib cage. She was calved in April1976 and lived until June of that year before dying of pneumonia. Upon her death, the family decided to have her remains preserved by a taxidermist. Twenty-four years later, in 2010, she was donated to the State Historical Society. Keeping Patsy’s remains preserves an unusual part of farm life in an agricultural state.
 

2. Buffalo Hide Chair (13346)

We have many pieces of furniture in the collection that are upholstered in buffalo hide, invariably with horns used for components such as the bottoms of chair legs, armrests, and back supports. Horn furniture was popular and stylish in the late 19th century, though most mass- produced pieces were made with cow, rather than buffalo parts. To modern eyes, including my own, the look of horn furniture can be somewhat…unsettling…to say the least, and that’s why I included it on the list. We believe it was produced in the 1880s in Kidder County. With the prevalence of buffalo in North Dakota’s natural history, our collection of horn furniture is a very North Dakotan twist on a popular fad.
 

3. Novelty Coffee Pot (1994.12.1)

Some items just make you scratch your head, and this is one of them. All we know about the coffee pot is that it was given to the mayor of Pembina, North Dakota, around 1900. Glued to the side are rifle cartridges, dice, seashells, pocket watches, and military buttons. The list could go on. All of this was given a thick coat of gold paint. Who did this and why did they do it? The world may never know.
 

4. Shackles (1982.48.8)

Some of our unusual items are not unusual because of what they are, but because of the story associated with them. These shackles were used to restrain a horse thief known as “Club Foot” Wilson, who had stolen two mares in Mercer County, Dakota Territory, in 1884. At the time, there was a vote to decide the county seat, with a choice between the towns of Causey and Stanton. Realizing the race was tight, local officials offered to set Wilson free in return for his voting for Stanton, which he of course did. According to the donor, Stanton won by one vote, though the records I have at my disposal do not confirm that. By keeping this item, we preserve an unusual story about justice in Dakota Territory.
 

5. A Pioneer Murder Weapon (10895)

In February 1897, eight members of the Spicer family were brutally murdered in rural Emmons County. While there are conflicting accounts regarding motive, Thomas Spicer, head of the family, was shot and killed with the Model 1842 Springfield musket pictured above, while working in a cow shed. The remaining members of his family, including five other adults and two babies, were killed with other weapons. Five men were arrested in connection with the murders and though all were initially sentenced to death, two eventually went free for lack of evidence. It is unlikely that we would even be offered an item like this in 2017. Preserving it however, tells a story about the dangers of pioneer life.