Its location in an extensive agricultural area has established Minot as a farm market. During both pre-war and post-war periods of heavy crop yields and high prices, Minot boomed as a grain shipping point. Two flour mills have been a factor in maintaining cash grain prices at higher levels than in other communities. Processing of dairy and poultry products has become an important industry, and a cash livestock market has brought additional returns and marketing facilities in the past few years. A plant of the poultry cooperative maintained by the North Dakota Farmers Union is situated in Minot. The recent droughts lessened grain marketing, but pushed forward in another direction the production and stability of diversified farm products, as indicated by the expansion of one and the erection of another creamery and processing plant. Like other cities, Minot has felt the depression period, but outwardly there remains only one prominent scar--"Sparrow Hotel," the steel skeleton of a 10-story hotel building. Begun in 1929, construction was halted by the market crash of that year, and the framework now houses only a multitude of twittering, chirping sparrows. Its rail facilities have helped to make Minot a natural shipping point for the great quantities of lignite mined in this vicinity. The Truax-Traer Company, with headquarters here, is one of the largest lignite strip mining companies in the United States, and operates the three largest strip mines in the State. Out of the _Rustler-Tribune_, which reported Minot's earliest events, there grew the Minot _Optic Reporter_, which is now the Minot _Daily News_. The _Democrat_, a political publication, has grown into the _Dakota State Journal_, and the weekly Ward County _Independent_ is also published in Minot. A radio station, KLPM, maintains studios in the Fair Block on South Main Street. With improved transportation facilities and good roads, Minot has become a medical center for the northwest section of the State. Two large hospitals, two smaller private hospitals, and medical and dental clinics are maintained. POINTS OF INTEREST 1. MINOT STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE, 9th Ave. NW. between 2nd and 8th Sts., with an average quarterly enrollment of 525, is the largest normal school in the State. It is an accredited four-year college with a teachers training school in connection. Its 70-acre campus, 60 acres of which were donated by Erik Ramstad, Minot's first settler, lies at the foot of the hills bordering the Souris valley on the N. and contains six brick buildings of modern construction, including a main educational building with auditorium and gymnasium, two dormitories, two training school buildings, a powerhouse, and a floodlighted athletic field.