MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

Welcome

Membership

Activities

Ag Stn Centennial

History Harvest

TR-Coe Exhibit

WWII Exhibit

Museum & Office

Area History

Book: "Mantani"

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

School System History

The 1890s

The 1900s

1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MV Produce Warehouse

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Liberty Memorial Bridge

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkins-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

View Collections

Artifacts - Miscellanous

Newspapers

Pottery and Glass

Photos - Buildings

Photos - Downtown

Photos - Floods

Photos - People

Photos - Rail and Trains

What's New

Northern Great Plains Experiment Station - South Hwy 6
Early Mandan leaders understood the stability a Federal facility could bring to the economy of the area.  In 1908, they had a bill introduced in the US Congress for an Indian school. The legislation passed, but Bismarck businessmen maneuvered a way to get it built on their side of the Missouri; since there was no bridge connecting the two cities at that time.  Needless to say, Mandan promoters did not welcome the turn of events.

Aerial View
Business leaders understood the success of farmers and ranchers was crucial to their success.  While the early Dakota settlers brought with them their favorite seeds and plantings for raising fruit, vegetables, grains and trees from their prior homes, many varieties did not thrive in growing conditions found on the high dakota prairie.  Efforts to secure a Federal facility subsequently turned to the agricultural industry of the region.

A. E. Thorberg, W. A. Lanterman and C. L. Timmerman pushed for an agricultural experiment station after a priairie fire devastated many acres of land. They lobbied the U.S. Congress for a research lab to develop improved plant strains the following year. The bill failed, as it did again in 1911. Finally in August 1912, a bill passed to establish the Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory. However, funding the facility was a separate effort.

Mandan businesses pooled their resources and purchased land for the new facility at approximately  $32 per acre. Among them were a bank, several mercantile companies, a drugstore, an insurance company, a newspaper, a clothing store and a tailor. Major James Hanley, a prominent area politician, got ND to reimburse them, and the land became property of the State – which leased it to the federal government for 99-years.

Mandan scientists broke sod in 1913 and planted several blocks of trees in 1914. But there was a problem; the facility was paid for, but nothing had been appropriated for research. J. C. Brinsmeade, the first agronomist, had to buy equipment and hire people out of his own pocket.

The first buildings at the Northern Great Plains Experiment Station were erected in the spring of 1913, and a wind break, a quarter mile long and fourteen rows wide, was planted at that time.

 

Robert Wilson took out newspaper ads offering landowners saplings and growing plans through the Windbreak Tree Program, and more than 4,000 landowners applied. Wilson and five forestry students inspect each site, traveling by horse and buggy, train, and automobile, and the following spring, more than 1,300 farms in ND, SD, WY and MT planted windbreaks.


In the years that followed, fruit breeding led to hardier strains of apples, plums and apricots. Improved varieties of vegetables led to the formation of local seed companies like the Oscar Will Company. Research on grains and other crops led to better drought and disease resistance.


Dairy herds, too, improved because of the lab’s research into feeding, breeding and management practices. Although the dairy program ended in 1955, participating farms in Morton and Emmons County still lead the state in diary production today.


In 1935, during the Great Depression, Congress withdrew funding for agricultural research, but Mandan businessmen weren’t interested in letting go; they got more than 4,000 windbreak tree recipients to contact Congress, and appropriations for the lab were restored. Sixty years later, in 1996 and ‘97, funding was again deleted from the federal budget. And, once more, farmers and ranchers mobilized to save the lab, and funding was restored.


Mandan owes much to A. E. Thorberg as the promoter, and to Congressman L. B. Hanna and Senators Gronna and McCumber as the represetatives in Congress, who were successful in obtaining the appropriation necessary for the present Northern Great Plains Experimental Station.

This Station today maintains the honor of being the largest Federal dry land experimental station in the nation, outside of Beltsville, MD.

Dry land farming in all of its phases is carried on at the Station, as well as the development of new grains and fruits. A few of the fruits which have been developed at the station and released for commericial use include five varieties of apples, three of crabapples, four plums, two cherry plums, one apricot and varieties of currants. New varieties of vegetables have also been developed.

While the focus now and in the recent past remain with food varities, some hardy flower varieties have also been released.

A Bismarck-based seed company, Oscar H. Will and Company, benefited greatly by its proximity to the Experiment Station.  An article on the history of this company can be found on the Farm Collector website:

Link: http://www.farmcollector.com/farm-life/Seed-Corn-to-Shelterbelts.aspx

The Station has a high place in history for the advances made in the production of many foods. The Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory has now taken on an additional role, advancing knowledge of "green energy" by conducting research on carbon sequestration and developing switch grass varieties for potential ethanol fuel feedstocks. Other current research projects including improving the nutritional value of beef, using fewer production steps while increasing crop yields and creating new forage cultivars.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; PO Box 1001; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 03/28
/23    ©  2007-2023  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved