PRAIRIE POST FOR JULY 19, 2011

It was a very busy time, in July, 1937, for Company H and Battery F of the North Dakota National Guard. These were the units here in Jamestown and all of their activities were right here in town.
First off there was Governor’s Day. Obviously, on Governor’s Day you invite the Gov. In this case it brought William Langer to town. He headlined a day that included a parade, baseball games, speeches and a few races.
Langer was early in his second term as governor. He served from 1933 to 1934 before being removed from office after charges of impropriety. He was cleared of the charges and reelected to the top office in the state in 1936.
The parade was led by the official Governor’s band from New Rockford along with all various local and regional parade groups. This was followed by a barbecue lunch in the park at noon.
Evidently the organizers of the event thought a political speech right after a heavy lunch might put the crowd to sleep. They gave everyone a break until 2 p.m. when Langer spoke to the crowd.
This was followed by horse, pony and bicycle races at the fairground. The baseball game featured the Adrian and Ypsilanti squads.
And to make it all loud and official, Battery F of the North Dakota National Guard fired a 17 gun salute to the governor.
But that was not all the the National Guard was busy with in July, 1937.
It seems they had a little trouble with vermin at the North Dakota State Hospital. Big time exterminators were called in to fumigate all the buildings.
Two or three squads of the local National Guard units were called out to guard the buildings during the fumigation process. An article in the Jamestown Sun on July 13 also suggested the guardsmen would play a part in guarding patients at the hospital during the fumigation process.
And it was quite a process.
The gasses used to fumigate the buildings were so toxic a single breath of air from within the building could be deadly even a day or two after the fumigation. The guardsmen were charged with keeping the public, patients and staff away from the buildings during the process.
The whole cleaning process was expected to last up to 10 days with the gasses intended to penetrate every crack and crevice of the patient care buildings.
The Sun article described the buildings at the State Hospital as “unspeakably filthy” and infested with “lice, bedbugs and cockroaches.”
The local National Guardsmen dealt with politicians and cockroaches in the same week. Those of you that are pessimistic about our political system may wonder how they told them apart.

There was a great turn out at the front porch chat at the Stutsman County Museum Sunday. I had a chance to tell the story of a little mystery and then put the case to the vote of those attending.

The story starts back about 199 years ago. Col. Robert Dickson of the English Army was tasked with recruiting Native Americans from this area to fight with the British in the War of 1812.

Dickson had a good deal of success. He married into the tribe that lived along the Elm River southwest of present day Ellendale. From that source he recruited about 25 warriors to go east and fight against the Americans.

Those Indians fought well and, according to their oral legends, were given a cannon captured from the Americans in battle. They brought that cannon back to this region and named the piece, “Little Dakota.”

But times were changing on the northern plains. The English influence was replaced by American. Many of the Indians that fought with the British had the medals and flags they had been given taken and burned.

And the Indians got rid of Little Dakota reportedly by throwing it in the James River somewhere south of the Pipestem Creek and north of the area of present day Oakes.

That is all a combination of American history and Indian lore.

Now we step ahead to the late 1890s.

A Jamestown area youth by the name of Dana Wright is riding horse along with his brother along the James River south of Jamestown. Near an abandon shanty they find a small cannon. In the 1960s he donates the canon to the Stutsman County Museum where it still is today.

Wright served as Stutsman County sheriff, an officer in the North Dakota National Guard and as a board member of the North Dakota Historical Society. He is an active researcher of the history of this area and North Dakota in general.

The cannon is about 15 inches long and slightly more than 3 inches in diameter. The caliber is about 1 1/2 inches. The cannon barrel is intact while the mounting bracket has been lost to history. The gun has no serial number or manufacturer’s markings.

Is this gun the lost “Little Dakota.”

The circumstantial evidence fits. The Indians would have only brought a small cannon back from the Ohio River country so it is the right size. It was found in the area where the legends say the gun was left.

As a student of history I really want to believe that Little Dakota is on display at the Lutz Mansion as a display of the Stutsman County Museum.

My biggest concern is that Wright, one of the great historians of the area and the original finder of the cannon, never called it Little Dakota.

There is no proof one way or the other. It is a mystery I don’t believe will ever be solved. But it does make a good story.