Backstage Pass to North Dakota History

This blog takes you behind the scenes of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Get a glimpse at a day-in-the-life of the staff, volunteers, and partners who make it all possible. Discover what it takes to preserve North Dakota's natural and cultural history.

Three Steel Truss Bridges, the NHPA, and You

Many historic bridges are protected from unrestrained destruction because of the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) 50 years ago. The NHPA obliges federal agencies to consider alternatives to demolition and to consult with state and local groups when repairs are needed. This year is an especially appropriate time to include a visit to some of the fascinating steel truss bridges protected by the NHPA process. Here are three of my favorites:

Viking Bridge
The recently restored Viking Bridge is about two miles northwest of Portland in Traill County. It is the oldest recorded bridge in North Dakota and is a Pratt thru truss steel bridge. Built in 1885 it was moved to its present location on the Goose River in 1915. The bridge was all prefabricated, except for the connector rods which had to be forged in place by a local blacksmith.

Viking Bridge in 1991

Viking Bridge in 1991, photo taken by Mark Hufstetler/Dale Martin SHSND/A&HP 32TR700

Viking Bridge in 2016

Restored Viking Bridge Photos Taken by Marilu Person June 2016

Map of Viking Bridge

Johnson Bridge
The Johnson Bridge is a pinned Pratt pony bridge featured in the J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge scenic auto tour. Constructed around 1900 - 1909, it was designed by the Fargo Bridge and Iron Company with crossed, counter bracing ties. Nearly forgotten when replaced, it is kept and maintained as an exhibit on the tour as a result of consultation.

Johnson Bridge

Photo by Lon Johnson/Pat Deeg, 1991 SHSND/A&HP 32MH128

The refuge headquarters is two miles north of Upham, McHenry County.

Map of Johnson Bridge

Long X Bridge

Long X Bridge Photo by Joe Trinka 2012

Long X Bridge
The Long X is an impressive 969 feet long with the largest span 325 feet. It is a rare cantilevered Warren thru truss bridge with alternating vertical members. Plans for the Long X Bridge, built in 1959, are evolving, and it is possible to keep the bridge. One proposal is to shorten the diagonal bracing, (the central “V”) and raise the central beam, allowing more than 20’ height clearance. It is located over the Little Missouri River on Highway 85/ND 200 in McKenzie County.

Map of Long X Bridge

You can find your own favorite bridges to visit at www.bridgehunter.com. Bridge aficionados from all over the country maintain this website.

Which is your favorite bridge and why?

You have what? Adventures in Mount Making

Exhibits are one of the most visible ways that we, as a museum, engage with the public. Since reopening in November 2014, hundreds of thousands of people have passed through the galleries to see some of the treasures of our state, while also learning a bit about North Dakota’s history. I see exhibit development as one of the most important things we do as museum professionals. As a collections curator, it is also one of the most challenging.

I am the primary staff person who prepares artifacts for exhibit. The toughest part about it is finding a balance between artifact preservation and visual aesthetic. Some items are simple; lay them on a shelf and they’re happy. Others require quite a bit of creativity on the part of multiple people to come up with a workable balance. I’d like to show you the work involved with one artifact currently on display in the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum.

The artifact, a pair of hide leggings, was one of the more challenging items I prepared for the Native American Hall of Honor exhibit, which opened at the ND Heritage Center & State Museum on June 2. They are both fairly soft and very flexible, and being made of hide, they can’t be sewn through. Because of that, there were very few points where I could attach either legging to a mount. They are also heavy and require a structure that is sturdy enough to support their weight. I also needed to use archival materials that won’t harm the artifact over time. The final element is the visual aesthetic—how do you stay within the constraints of all of the above while creating something that looks natural?

Leggings

Here are the leggings that were to be mounted.  Made of soft hide, they would not stand up without being secured to a solid mount.

We have a large amount of cardboard tubes, and I decided to combine two for each mount, with a narrower tube at the bottom and a wider one at the top to replicate the general proportions of a leg. The leggings were created specifically for someone, so I wrapped archival foam sheets around the cardboard and layered them until the mount fit snugly and naturally into the legging, just like the leg they were meant for. I then secured each layer in place with strips of mylar, held together with double sided tape. To give the mount a more finished look, I wrapped undyed muslin around the top as well as a foam plug I cut to fit into the round hole.

Leggings mount

The base of the mount I made was cardboard tube that we had left over from rolls of foam, tissue paper and other archival materials that we commonly use in the course of our work.  I used a wider tube on top and a narrower tube on bottom, then wrapped sheets of archival foam around the tubes to match the proportions of each legging. The top of each was wrapped in undyed muslin to provide a finished look.

The leggings were to be displayed in a standing position. Without securing the leggings at the top, they would droop and slide down the mount. I would never try to sew through the hidesewing would cause damage to the material. There was one point on top where I could tack the legging to the mount, and that was a small hide strip that joins the two halves of material on each legging. I looped embroidery floss around the strip and into the muslin four separate times for strength and to spread out the weight as much as I could.

Display case

The finished product on display in the lower right.

Mounting the leggings was one of the more challenging parts of the exhibit for me. Most visitors probably won’t notice the final product, but that is the point of a successful mount!

Food for thought

Signa Hermanson Larson peeling potatoes

SHSND 2009-P-012-012. The State Archives has multiple images of different cooking scenes throughout our collections. Here, Signa Hermanson Larsen, Burke County, peels potatoes in 1923.

Recently, the State Archives took in a large number of North-Dakota related cookbooks from the collection of Charlotte Hansen. Charlotte was born in Jamestown in 1922, and had a longtime interest in culinary delights. She even belonged to a potluck group in high school called “The Harpies.” She and her husband Gordon Hansen owned the Jamestown Sun for a number of years. Gordon served as publisher and Charlotte was Food and Travel editor. She often travelled with a group of other food editors, and she wrote travel-themed food articles that won a variety of state and national awards from the National Food Writers Association and the National Press Women. She also published four cookbooks of her own. Eventually she wrote a food column for “The Splash” in Arizona, where they lived during the winters.

Frances Densmore cooking at a camp

SHSND 0270 Album p19-46. Frances Densmore is cooking at a camp.

Men cooking pitchfork fondue during groundbreaking ceremony for the SHSND

SHSND 2009-P-026-box6-file10-Roll3-08. These two men are shown cooking pitchfork fondue during the groundbreaking ceremony for the State Historical Society on October 9, 1976, in Bismarck.

Although Charlotte had cookbooks from many locations, only those related directly to the state of North Dakota have come to the State Archives. These selections of her cookbooks encompass churches and communities around the state from the 1950s to the 2000s.

These cookbooks add a unique new dimension to research. Many of our researchers come in looking to find specific hard facts about people or events, such as when an event happened, and where it was located, or how it came to pass, if possible. Books like these add color to the picture that these historians and genealogists are interested in. What people could and did eat during different times and in different places throughout history can highlight prosperity or poverty, describe populations of settlers, show advancements in cooking technology and changes in cooking techniques, and more.

Plus, the recipes are still viable for use. So, that’s a win-win.

Child with dog and cooking pot

SHSND 0086-0378. A child is alone with a dog and cooking pot in this image.

Cooking outside

SHSND 0086-0442. Hides and Eats is cooking outside at Crows Heart's place in 1912.

You can’t page through the books from Charlotte Hansen’s collection without locating rhubarb, pickles, desserts, hot dishes, jell-o, and salads…and don’t forget the lefse and sauerkraut! An increase in microwaveable recipes or various types of “healthy recipes” show different perceptions and technologies here in North Dakota.

For example, one of our new acquisitions from Hanson is a Community Cookbook out of Wimbledon from 1977. Compiled by the United Methodist Women, even the categories of foods that it is separated into are telling: Quick and Yeast Breads; Bars and Doughnuts; Cakes and Frostings; Cookies; Casseroles, Meats and Poultry; Desserts; Pies; Salads and Dressings; Pickles, Jams, and Relishes; and Miscellaneous, which includes a ten-page section on candy, and a section marked Lo Calorie (sic), which in turn is about 4 pages in length. This book includes some recipes that were in an older cookbook that had been compiled some years before.

Cowboy cooking outdoors

SHSND 0075-0625. A cowboy is cooking outdoors. Photo by Leo Harris.

Three-ring binder cookbook

The cookbooks range from three-ring binders to paper clipped together to book format. This one is from 1975.

One of our oldest cookbooks in State Archives is the Butterick Pattern Cook Book from 1890; interested culinary historians may view this book through the Library of Congress: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.00144805045.

For your enjoyment, for your culinary delights, and for a historic flair, feel free to try one of these recipes. Copies can be made from any of these books and added to your own home cooking enjoyment. You can’t take the cookbooks home, but you can always take home a copy of a recipe—or try one of these salads as listed below!

Community Cookbook of Wimbledon

From the Community Cookbook of Wimbledon.

Butterscotch bars

Our cataloguer couldn’t help herself; she copied and made this butterscotch bar recipe from the Otter Tail Power Company Christmas Cooky Book (sic) Cookbook.

"Steinkern" Fossil Pipe Bowl

Adrienne Mayor’s (2005) volume, Fossil Legends of the First Americans, has sparked the interest of archaeologists in vertebrate and invertebrate fossils and other natural curios that occur in museum collections across the world. An interesting example is a steinkern or fossil bivalve shell pipe bowl from an unknown Ohio location. The specimen was donated to the State Historical Society of North Dakota by a private collector in the 1930s.

Derived from German, steinkern translates to “stone kernel.” These internal cast fossils are formed by “…consolidated mud or sediment that filled the hollow interior of a fossil shell (such as a bivalve shell) or other structure. Also, the fossil thus formed after the dissolution of the mold.” [1]

Fossil Bivalve Shell Pipe Bowl

Three Views of a Fossil Bivalve Shell Pipe Bowl (#3684, Grassick Collection). Photographs by Meagan G. Schoenfelder, SHSND.

The pipe bowl has been smoothed along the rim while retaining its exterior natural finish characteristic of the bivalve shell periostracum (outermost layer of the shell). A small, circular, straight-sided draft hole is located near the beak on the hinge line of the fossil shell that corresponds with the bowl heel to accommodate the insertion of a small-bore stem. Dark residue or cake occurs on the rim and in the chamber.

Pipe bowl decorations may involve a variety of design elements, including animate and inanimate representations, depending on the stone, clay, or wood materials used to craft the object.

Typically, fossils are not the domain of archaeologists, as they do not lend insight to the human past. But this object is an excellent example of how paleontology and archaeology can occasionally converge. The eminent paleontologist Theodore E. White aptly characterized the significance of fossils for archaeology and paleontology nearly seventy years ago, “No historical resume of paleontology in the Missouri Basin, however brief, would be complete without mention of the fragments of fossil bone and leaves found by archeologists in the Indian village sites. Apparently these fragments were brought into camp as curiosities. Occasionally the fossils were used as ornaments … The data on the uses made of fossils by the Indians … should be collated.” [2]

Fossil ornaments and other curios (e.g., fossil snail beads and concretion bowls) occur in regional archaeological assemblages. I am not aware of similar steinkern examples akin to the one described here from sites in North Dakota. I continue to research how fossils were integrated in the lives and cultures of people in the past.


1Dictionary of Geological Terms, Third edition, Robert L. Bates and Julia A. Jackson, eds., Anchor Books, New York, NY, 1984, page 384.

2A Preliminary Appraisal of the Paleontological Resources of Certain Basins and Reservoirs in the Missouri River Basin, Theodore E. White, August 1948, page 2. Manuscript on file, Archaeology and Historic Preservation Division, State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck, ND.

12,000 Years, A Piece of Flint, and a New Pursuit

Number “22” launched me into the world of archaeology.

Let me explain.

It was Sunday, July 30, 2006, day #7 of a nine-day archaeological project at a place called Beacon Island in northwestern North Dakota.

Beacon Island archaeological dig

In those seven days, I had progressed to the point where I was trusted with a trowel, a kneeling pad and my very own archaeological “unit.” The unit was my very own 1 meter by 1 meter square of potential discovery.

It had been very hot, 112 degrees a couple of days before, and just about the same that Sunday afternoon. It was an exciting week but the heat, the baloney sandwiches, and the lack of a long shower was beginning to take a toll on my enthusiasm.

About 2:30 that afternoon, the very distinct sound of metal hitting stone resonated in my sunburned brain. I quickly realized that the sound didn’t come from my trowel, but from the unit immediately to my left. A University of Chicago field school student had discovered a piece of Knife River Flint that would fuel my imagination.

Piece of Knife River Flint in the field

Beacon Island was the site of a brief (one-or two-day) event that took place roughly 12,000 years prior to that hot Sunday afternoon. I wrote of Beacon Island in one of my previous blogs so I won’t retell the entire story. In short, a band of Paleoindian hunters surrounded a herd of twenty-nine or so Bison antiquus, killed them, butchered them, cooked some of the meat, prepared some of the rest for transport, sharpened their tools, and moved on.

Something they left behind that day would, 12,000 years later, become number “22.”

After the completion of the project, the PaleoCultural Research Group (PCRG) issued the official report of the Beacon Island survey. The 275-page report detailed every aspect of the study. On page 144 of the report, the following appears:

“All but one of the projectile points from Beacon Island are morphologically and technologically consistent with points from the Hell Gap and Agate Basin sites…The lone exception is the base of what can be called a Goshen point…This specimen is made from KRF (Knife River Flint) and is relatively broad and flat…Given its position in the bone bed there is no doubt that this point was among the weapons used in the kill.”[1]

The flint projectile point “…was among the weapons used in the kill,” and I was the second person in 12,000 years to view it “in situ” at Beacon Island.

I followed the Goshen[2] point, along with the rest of the artifacts uncovered during the project, to the archaeology lab at the State Historical Society of North Dakota (SHSND.) I, along with other volunteers, spent the winter of 2006-2007 sorting and consolidating the bone, stone, shell, pottery and other material from Beacon Island. By that time, I was firmly hooked on the archaeology of North Dakota.

The little Knife River Flint projectile point discovered that hot July day disappeared into the artifact collections of the SHSND for a couple of years, awaiting its designated spot in the display cases of the Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum. It had been photographed, assigned a museum catalog number (2007.1.13), and packed away, ready to become a part of the permanent Beacon Island exhibit.

Knife River Flint projectile point 2007.1.13

The Goshen point reappeared in 2014, identified as number “22” in the glass Beacon Island exhibit case.

Knife River Flint projectile point in caseSince the discovery of number “22,” I have had the opportunity to volunteer on a number of North Dakota archaeological projects and serve as president of the North Dakota Archaeological Association. Each project is unique and brings to light a variety of interesting artifacts, each with its own story. None, though, hold the personal fascination for me that little number “22” holds.

I stop and visit number “22” every time I am in the Early Peoples gallery. I still get a couple of goosebumps, mixed with a little nostalgia, every time I view it. It will always be “my” artifact, the little piece of Knife River Flint that got me involved in and fascinated with the field of archaeology, and which links me to a fellow human being 12,000 years in the past.

Stop by and see number “22” for yourself when you visit the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum. Let it tell you the story of the 12,000 years between the time it was used to kill a Bison antiquus until it reappeared at the hands of an archaeology student at Beacon Island and opened a new field of study for me.

Learn more about Beacon Island in "From the Field to the Museum." This video is part of the Making Archaeology Public Project, which was created to honor the 50th Anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.


[1] Mitchell, Mark D., “Agate Basin Archaeology at Beacon, Island, North Dakota,” 2012, PaleoCultural Research Group, Arvada, Colorado, page 144

[2] Goshen refers to a distinct type of Paleoindian projectile point first discovered in southeast Wyoming in the 1980s.

North Dakota Studies: Helping Teachers Teach

North Dakota Studies and the Communications and Education Division support the state’s social studies teachers in many ways. The North Dakota Studies program at the State Historical Society (SHSND) produces curriculum and other resources for students, teachers, and lifelong learners. To ensure those materials are easily available to teachers, North Dakota Studies maintains a website (ndstudies.gov) where all of its classroom support materials can be found.

Curator of Education Erik Holland coordinates workshops for teachers every summer on a variety of historical, cultural, geographical, and scientific topics. This June’s professional development workshop is titled Commemorate - Educate - Motivate. The three-day, one-credit workshop features commemoration of the anniversaries of the National Park Service, the Pulitzer Prize, the Historic Preservation Act, and Shakespeare’s life.

North Dakota Studies also works with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to identify the North Dakota History Teacher of the Year. Teachers can be nominated by their principal, superintendent, or colleagues. The nominated teacher submits lesson plans, samples of student work, and a short essay on teaching philosophy to demonstrate how he or she leads and encourages students in their studies. The winner receives $1,000 and a variety of classroom resources from Gilder Lehrman. The state winner also competes for National History Teacher of the Year. The 2015 North Dakota winner was Ellen Ista of Kindred Elementary School. This year’s winner will be named soon.

Neil Howe with Ellen Ista and her class

North Dakota Studies program director Neil Howe presented the North Dakota Gilder Lehrman History Teacher of the Year award to Ellen Ista of Kindred Elementary School in 2015. Photo courtesy Neil Howe.

North Dakota Studies Program Coordinator Neil Howe publishes a newsletter three times during the school year which features information on current and upcoming events, curricular materials, and short articles on North Dakota history, geography, or culture. The newsletter is mailed to every social studies teacher in North Dakota.

North Dakota Studies and the Communications and Education Division provide broad support for social studies teachers across the state. The materials, workshops, and information prepare teachers for their highly important task of educating the state’s children.