The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
Last weekend I was cleaning out a drawer and ran across a North Dakota map from 1956. It was in some of my dad’s belongings that I received after he passed away.
On the surface, you wouldn’t think there is a lot of information, but when you unfold this map, there is a lot to unpack and it’s all very interesting.
The most obvious piece of information I found was with the population of West Fargo. It had a population of 159 that was based on the 1950 Census. In 2020, West Fargo’s population was 36,566, making it the fifth largest city in the state.
Physically, the state as a whole hasn’t changed much at all. There are more paved roads than there were in 1956, for obvious reasons, but otherwise not much has changed except for some small towns that aren’t listed on today’s maps.
Have you ever heard of Trotters, Vashti, Heil, Landa, Medberry or Backoo? If you are familiar with the counties these communities were in, you may have heard of them. If not, they were located respectively on the Golden Valley/McKenzie County line, Stutsman, Grant, Bottineau, LaMoure and Pembina counties.
Another striking change on this 1956 map is that Interstates 94 and 29 didn’t exist. U.S. Highway 10 ran across the southern tier of the state and later became I-94. And for those in the Red River Valley, it was U.S. Highway 81. But rather than going straight north of Grand Forks like I-29 does, U.S. 81 veered northwest, taking you into Grafton, then north to Hamilton, then east to Joliette and north to Pembina.
Looking at Devils Lake on this 1956 map is something I don’t recognize. I spent a career in the National Guard and frequented Camp Grafton so I’m quite familiar with Devils Lake, at least since 1980.
It was quite different in 1956. For instance, the lake shore was about 10 miles east of Minnewaukan. You may recall in recent years, the lake swallowed up the Benson County Fairgrounds on the east side of Minnewaukan. It didn’t reach Fort Totten and it appears there was about a mile or so of dry land west of Camp Grafton. In addition, nearby Lake Irvine was about a mile north of Churchs Ferry.
North Dakota had only 18 radio stations in 1956 . . . the entire state. In stark contrast, Fargo has 24 radio stations today. Some of those 18 still carry the same call letters; KFYR - Bismarck, KDLR - Devils Lake, WDAY- Fargo, KSJB - Jamestown, KDIX - Dickinson and KCJB - Minot.
Even more sparse was television. There were only five television channels in the entire state including KCJB-TV in Minot, the first to go on the air in North Dakota in 1953. A permit had been granted for a sixth station that would later go on the air in Minot as KMOT.
You’re going to love this! The speed limit on all highways was 55 miles per hour, but all trucks had a speed limit of 50 mph. Think about how long it would take you to drive from Portal to Jamestown at 50 miles per hour, or Medora to Fargo.
There is one thing on this map that I’m not sure of. It states an operator’s license is required for all residents. Maybe it should have said motorists because children won’t have a license. But, for non-residents, if you have a license in your home state, you may only operate a vehicle in North Dakota for 90 days.
I couldn’t find any four-lane highways any place and many of the roads that are highways now, were gravel roads back in 1956. As an example, Highway 11 from Hague, all the way east to Lidgerwood was gravel. Highway 1 from Maida to Langdon was gravel. Then from Langdon to Lakota it was paved and back to gravel to Hannaford.
There are doubtless more examples, but I’d like to close with some more population numbers from 1956: Fargo, 38,256; Bismarck, 18,640; Grand Forks, 26,836, Minot, 22,032; Jamestown, 10,697, Dickinson, 7,469; Williston, 7,378; Valley City, 6,851; Devils Lake, 6,427 and Wahpeton, 5,125.
Churchs Ferry had a population of 223, Hannah was 257, Sarles was 285, Leith was 160, Portal was 409, Ryder was 320 and Tolley was 248. Today, the combined populations of those communities is 395.
(Marvin Baker is a news writer for the Kenmare News and formerly Foster County Independent.)
