North Dakota Trivia & Tidbits - Page 3

Looking for North Dakota trivia? Try our list North Dakota little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

—About 450 state high school students got bent out of shape in Fargo for what they hope is the world’s largest game of Twister. The students, who were attending a leadership conference last October, played the game on a 4,699-square-foot Twister mat created from 180 Twister games. They submitted a videotape of the event to Guinness World Records.

first appeared: 2/10/2008

—The largest state-owned sheep research center in the United States is the 1,165-acre North Dakota State University Hettinger Research Extension Center near Hettinger (pop. 1,307).

first appeared: 1/27/2008

—The average commute time to work for North Dakotans is 15.5 minutes, the shortest average time of any of the states. New Yorkers have the longest average commute at 30.9 minutes.

first appeared: 1/13/2008

—Widman’s Candy Shop puts a sweet spin on the state’s spud crop—with its famous chocolate-covered potato chips. The family-owned business has stores in Fargo, Grand Forks (pop. 49,321) and Crookston, Minn. (pop. 8,192).

first appeared: 12/30/2007

—A successful campaign by sixth-graders at Rickard Elementary in Williston (pop. 12,512) bore fruit, and the chokecherry was named the official state fruit in March. Chokecherries are used in jellies, wine and syrup, and were harvested by members of the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition.

first appeared: 12/2/2007

—Bill Gross, who grew up on a farm near Cleveland (pop. 112), founded Farm Rescue, a group of volunteers who come to the aid of regional farmers who have experienced illness, injury or other hardships and need help planting and harvesting crops. Ten families received help from the group last year.

first appeared: 11/18/2007

—Sandy, billed as the world’s largest sandhill crane, stands 40 feet tall at Steele (pop. 761) and promotes the region as a birdwatchers’ paradise. The iron sculpture was built in 1999.

first appeared: 11/4/2007

—In 1947 and again in 1989, the state Legislature defeated resolutions intended to change the name of the state to simply “Dakota.” Some people think the “North” gives an unflattering impression of the state as a cold, treeless prairie.

first appeared: 10/21/2007

—Built in 1928 from local clay, stone and timber, the Hutmacher farmhouse in Fayette in Dunn County (pop. 3,600) represents a traditional ethnic architectural form used by German-speaking Russian immigrants and is being restored by Preservation North Dakota volunteers.

first appeared: 10/7/2007

—During the summer, the restored Fort Lincoln Trolley in Mandan (pop. 16,718) transports passengers nine miles from the Mandan depot to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park.

first appeared: 9/30/2007

—A titanoides fossil, a skeleton of a bear-like creature, believed to be 60 million years old, was found at an oil-drilling site near Belfield (pop. 866) earlier this year. The titanoides was about 5 feet long and weighed between 200 and 300 pounds.

first appeared: 9/9/2007

—One of the first mosques in the United States was built by Muslim homesteaders in Ross (pop. 48) in 1929.

first appeared: 8/26/2007

—The North American Game Warden Museum in the International Peace Garden on the U.S. and Canadian border near Dunseith (pop. 739) honors the profession’s fallen heroes and includes a collection of vintage uniforms and other memorabilia.

first appeared: 8/19/2007

—Bruce Elberg of Burlington (pop. 1,096) reeled in a 6-pound, 13-ounce smallmouth bass—along with a state record—from Lake Darling near Minot (pop. 36,567) in April.

first appeared: 8/12/2007

—On Feb. 17, 8,962 people lay in the snow on the Capitol grounds in Bismarck (pop. 55,532) and waved their arms to set a Guinness World Record for the most snow angels created simultaneously in one place.

first appeared: 7/15/2007

—A herd of life-size fiberglass bison was decorated by artists and schoolchildren and displayed in businesses and public spaces in Cass County and Clay County, Minn. (pop. 51,229), last summer, in what was billed as the region’s largest public art project. The Lake Agassiz Arts Council sponsored the “Herd About the Prairie” project.

first appeared: 7/1/2007

—The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora (pop. 100) chronicles the history of the region’s cowboys, ranching culture, rodeos and American Indians.

first appeared: 6/17/2007

—Straus Clothing in Fargo is the state’s oldest family business and traces its roots to 1879 when Adolph Sternberg opened his first store in Sanborn (pop. 194).

first appeared: 6/3/2007

—Since the early 1950s, Ken Roeder has promoted the game of softball in Holmes by building a ball diamond in a cow pasture, raising money for lights, enlisting help to build restrooms, mowing the field and coaching local teams.

first appeared: 5/28/2007

—When Valley City (pop. 6,826) replaced its Rainbow Bridge in 2004, the city chose the same 1920s concrete arch design used by builder James Marsh, despite the bridge’s complexity and expense, to preserve the town’s beauty and history.

first appeared: 5/6/2007

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