Dakota Datebook: Look! Up in the sky!

Carl Ben Eielson’s history-making 1928 flight over the North Pole in his orange Lockheed Vega was reported on April 21 in North Dakota papers, but another colorful flight made smaller, more hysterical than historical headlines in the state.

A broken wheel on a refrigerator car 18 miles west of Jamestown caused the derailment of 15 railroad cars. There were no reported injuries except for bruised a...