As one of the volumes in the American Guide Series, written by the members of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration, the North Dakota guide has more than State significance, wide as this is. The National project was designed primarily to give useful employment to needy writers and research workers; it has developed into a more ambitious undertaking. The American Guide Series, covering the forty-eight States, Puerto Rico, Alaska, and numerous cities and towns, is unrolling a unique and inspiring panorama of these United States with their lively background and their vibrant present. The North Dakota guide adds its contribution to the whole, giving the reader a picture of the State, its land and resources, its history, people, the cities and towns they have built, and the principal points of interest. New chapters in North Dakota's story and other phases of its life and works are still to be told. This volume--a pioneer enterprise in a State where the records of the past and the varied life of today had not heretofore been assembled--may well serve as an incentive and a foundation for further books. Not ten or fifty or a hundred, but actually hundreds of North Dakotans helped in the making of the guide, from the many who contributed information about their own communities or fields of work down to the handful of editors and writers who brought that information within the covers of this book. In expressing the Project's appreciation of this friendly and cooperative help, so generously given, I wish particularly to thank Mr. Russell Reid, superintendent of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and his staff, especially Mrs. Florence H. Davis and Mr. Arnold Goplen; Mr. George Will and Mr. Robert A. Ritterbush, of Bismarck; Dr. Irvin Lavine, of the University of North Dakota; Mr. E. A. Milligan, of Michigan City; Mr. J. A. Patterson, of Minot; Dr. E. C. Stucke, of Garrison; and Mr. Henry Williams, of Appam. ETHEL SCHLASINGER _State Director_ CONTENTS FOREWORD v By William Langer, Governor of North Dakota PREFACE vii By Ethel Schlasinger, State Director, Federal Writers' Project ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS xiii GENERAL INFORMATION xv ANNUAL EVENTS xix I. SURVEY OF THE STATE CONTEMPORARY NORTH DAKOTA 3 NORTH DAKOTA: ITS NATURAL SETTING 5 INDIANS AND THEIR PREDECESSORS 16 HISTORY 35 AGRICULTURE AND FARM LIFE 59