March 15: 1880: There was rejoicing in Bismarck as a train finally reached the city. It had been four weeks since the last train had made its way to city, but was delayed by blizzards and snow blockades that had made travel impossible. 90 sacks of paper mail were also delivered.

March 16: 1887: Fears of flooding were rising in Bismarck. After a Northern Pacific train, which was delayed 70 hours by floods, finally reached Bismarck, reports began circulating that the Missouri River would break within the week. For those living along the banks, there was alarm that their homes would be swept away.



March 17: 1894: The Northern Pacific Company lost a suit involving possession of business property in the heart of Bismarck, worth $50,000. The plaintiff was also ruled to receive $26,000 in damages.

March 18: 1902: Two Lakota Indians from the Standing Rock reservation were found frozen to death, after a terrible storm swept across the prairie. Additional individuals were feared to have perished as well.

March 19: 1938: Flood waters were dropping an inch per hour along the Missouri River lowland near Bismarck; however, the river was still over the flood stage. Earlier, the flood waters had claimed thousands of acres of lowlands, and drove many residents from their homes.

March 20: 1887: With the Missouri River still rampaging through Bismarck-Mandan, rescuing partiers had been dispatched to save individuals who had climbed onto hay bales, or into trees, to escape the waters. The water had spread out over a six mile wide stretch of land. To make matters worse, a blizzard that had ended the day before, left six inches of snow throughout the area.

March 21: 1914: Israel Harris, who was a passenger on No. 5, attempted suicide by trying to cut his own throat. Fortunately, the train was approaching Glen Ullin, where Harris was taken from the train, and to a physician.

March 22: 1891: The first effort to enforce prohibition laws since the adjournment of the legislature took place. The Bismarck sheriff raided Shibley’s saloon, arrested the proprietor, and then seized five cases of beer and a couple jugs of wine.



March 23: 1929: The Mandan Chamber of Commerce appealed to President Hoover to use bombing planes to smash a seventy mile ice gorge on the Missouri River. The ice gorge, which was at Schmidt and Huff, was expected to cause millions of dollars of damage, as a heavy wall of water was approaching the city.

March 24: 1899: James W. Cole, who had killed his sweetheart, Miss H. Ford, because of jealousy, was hung from the scaffold. It was the second legal hanging in the state, and one of the “most successful ever witnessed.”

March 25: 1890: A blaze tore through Bismarck. Having started in the morning between two empty buildings, while the wind was blowing at sixty miles an hour. The opera house on third, a laundry business and the Judkins photograph gallery were burned. Two small house two blocks away also burned up.