GRAND FORKS
Railroad Stations: Great Northern, DeMers Ave. bet. 6th and 7th Sts. N., for G. N. Ry.; Northern Pacific, 202 N. 3rd St., for N. P. Ry.
Bus Stations: Union Station, Dacotah Hotel Bldg., 1st Ave. N. at N. 3rd St., for Checker and Triangle Transportation Companies, Northland Greyhound, and Liederbach Lines; Columbia Hotel, 624 DeMers, for Triangle Transportation Co.
Airport: Municipal airport, 1 m. W. of city, ½ m. S. of US 2, for Northwest Airlines; taxi fare 75c, time 10 min.
Taxis: Fare 25c first m., 10c additional each ½ m., 50c to university.
City Bus: Throughout city, to university, and East Grand Forks, Minn., fare 10c.
Traffic Regulations: Left and inside turns permitted at all intersections. N. 5th St. and Belmont Rd. (US 81) and University Ave. are through streets. W. from N. 5th St., 60 min. parking limit from noon to 6 p.m. No U-turn in business district. Traffic signals on DeMers Ave. at 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sts.
Accommodations: 8 hotels; municipal tourist camp, Riverside Park, NE. outskirts of city.
Tourist Information Service: Chamber of Commerce in City Hall, 2nd Ave. N. at 4th St.; Travelers' Aid Bureau (operating part time), Great Northern depot.
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses: City auditorium, 5th Ave. N. at 5th St., and Metropolitan Theater, 116 S. 3rd St., occasional road shows, local and university productions, concerts; Masonic Temple, Central High School Auditorium, local and university plays, concerts; 4 motion picture houses.
Golf: Municipal 18-hole course, Lincoln Park, SE. outskirts of city on Belmont Rd. (greens fee 40c); Nodak 9-hole course, University Ave. at Columbia Rd. (greens fee 20c for 18 holes).
Tennis: Courts at Riverside and Lincoln Parks, university campus (small fee).
Swimming: Outdoor pool, Riverside Park, open June to September, charge for adults; indoor, Y.M.C.A., 15 N. 5th St.
Hockey: Winter Sports Bldg., university; Riverside Park; and 1st Ave. N. at Washington St.
Skiing: 105 ft. and 30 ft. scaffolds at Lincoln Park. Cross country trails through park and up Red River.
Tobogganing: Central Park, S. end of 3rd St., toboggans (small hourly charge); small slides at Riverside and Lincoln Parks.
Skating: Winter Sports Bldg., university; lighted outdoor rinks at Central and Riverside Parks; neighborhood rinks throughout city.
Trap Shooting: Grand Forks Sportsmen's Association, range just outside city limits on University Ave.; Eckman rifle range, 1½ m. N. and ¼ m. W. of city off US 81.
CITY OF GRAND FORKS
Annual Events: All-American Turkey Show, City Auditorium, usually last week in January; Snow Modeling Contest, city parks, January; Winter Sports Carnival, city parks and Winter Sports Bldg., university, 2nd week in February; Carney Song Contest, university armory, February 21; Flickertail Follies, March; Engineers' Day, university, 4th Friday in April; Norwegian Independence Day, May 17; Interfraternity Sing, Bankside Theater, university, 4th week in May; High School Week, university, May; State Fair, fairgrounds, NW. outskirts of city on US 2, June; Water Carnival, Riverside Park, July; State Peony Show, June; Harvest Festival, 3rd week in September; Homecoming, university, October.
GRAND FORKS (830 alt., 17,112 pop.), seat of Grand Forks County, is named for its situation at the confluence of the Red River of the North and Red Lake River. The broad low profile of the city, dominated by the State Mill and Elevator and the radio station towers, is visible long before it is reached. Even the many trees do not obstruct the view, for they grow chiefly along the river, roughly paralleling the highway.
Like other small Midwest cities, Grand Forks is a heterogeneous mixture of nineteenth century and modern architecture. The south part of town, along US 81 and its neighboring streets, is the finest residential district. University Avenue, lined with rooming houses and quiet homes, culminates in an architectural spectacle along Fraternity Row, an impressive group of houses vying for prominence and grandeur.
Meat packing, milling, and processing of other agricultural products constitute the city's chief industries. The largest railroad terminal between St. Paul and Seattle, Grand Forks is headquarters of the Dakota Division of the Great Northern Railway, the largest division in the world, containing more than 1,800 miles of main line track. The Northern Pacific Railway and several truck lines add to the shipping facilities.
The State university is not only a material asset of the city, but is a vital part of its intellectual and social life. University musical and dramatic performances are popular with townsfolk, college parties and proms are leading society events, and athletic contests draw a large attendance, not only from the city but from the entire northeast section of the State.
It is thought that the early French-Canadian explorers of North Dakota may have given this site the name of Grandes Fourches; by this name it was commonly known to the French fur traders of the late eighteenth century. In 1801, under direction of Alexander Henry, Jr., John Cameron established a North West Company depot here. Where Henry's men traded furs with the Indians, Grand Forks stands, the second largest city in the State, and hub of a rich agricultural region in the Red River Valley.
Nothing is known of the occupants of the first house in Grand Forks, a tumble-down shack discovered by travelers near the shores of the Red River in the early 1850's. The site is now occupied by the warming house of the Central Park skating rink.
In 1868 Nicholas Hoffman and August Loon, carrying mail from Fort Abercrombie to Fort Pembina, built a log cabin at the present corner of Eighth Avenue South and Almonte. They used it as an overnight shelter on the long trip across the prairies.
Following his expedition by dogsled through Dakota in 1860, James J. Hill, who later built the Great Northern Railway, sent Capt. Alexander Griggs to explore the Red River. By the fall of 1870 Griggs had built up a good freighting business, using flatboats to carry his cargoes. George Winship, later publisher of the Grand Forks Herald, also went into the flatboat freight business and a friendly rivalry developed between the two commanders and their crews.
On one occasion Winship loaded two flatboats with merchandise at McCauleyville, scheduled for Pembina. At the same time Captain Griggs was loading a fleet of flatboats destined for Fort Garry (Winnipeg). Winship set out a half day before Griggs finished loading, but Griggs' crew boasted they could overtake the rival fleet. At the Goose Rapids Winship was forced by low water and the rocky channel to reload his entire cargo to a "lighter," a two-day task. Toward evening of the second day shouts up the river announced Griggs' arrival at the head of the rapids. Confident of keeping their lead, Winship and his crew tied up for the night. Before morning a violent storm washed overboard several kegs of beer which were part of their cargo. All were retrieved but one, which floated unnoticed downstream, to be salvaged by the Griggs crew. As a result of the ensuing party most of Griggs' men were incapacitated, and he was forced to tie up his fleet at Grandes Fourches to await recovery.
Winship reached Pembina safely, but before Griggs could proceed the river froze, and he was forced to unload his cargo and store it in improvised sheds. His crew, with no alternative but to spend the winter here, were the first white people known to have domiciled on the site of Grand Forks.
Captain Griggs built a squatter cabin at the mouth of the Red Lake River, and after a trip to St. Paul in 1871 built the first frame house in the settlement on the bank of the Red River, at the foot of what is now Kittson Avenue, and brought his family to the new community.
In its early years Grand Forks was a typical river town, developing into an important station for the heavy river and oxcart traffic on the St. Paul-Fort Garry trail. Dwellings began to dot the prairie beside the river, log huts and crude frame structures built from the product of Captain Griggs' sawmill. A post office was established in 1871, and mail arrived once or twice a week by dog team. In the same year a telegraph station was established, on the first line in the State, running between Fort Abercrombie and Winnipeg. It was about this time that the English pronunciation of the community's name came into general use.
In the winter of 1872 there was much unemployment and saloons were filled with idle men. During this winter "Catfish Joe," a half-witted Frenchman, murdered a local character known as Old Man Stevens who, while intoxicated, called him uncomplimentary names. The saloon crowd decided on a lynching, and all through the night plans were discussed, but with so many rounds of drinks that action was impossible. Catfish Joe was tried for murder at Yankton, spent two years in prison, and returned to terrify Grand Forks by strutting about the streets decorated with a bowie knife and a Winchester. One courageous townsman, Bert Haney, seized the gun and struck Joe a terrific blow on the head, breaking the rifle barrel from the stock, but with no damage to Joe's head. Catfish Joe later went to Montana where he murdered his partner for refusing to get up in the night and prepare breakfast.
By the spring of 1872 Captain Griggs' sawmill was doing a flourishing business, turning out lumber for building and repairing river boats and barges. Logs were cut and floated down the river to Winnipeg. When Frank Viets opened the first flour mill in the Red River Valley at Grand Forks in 1877, he added another industry to the growing settlement. The Hudson's Bay Company operated a store, managed by Viets, who purchased it when the company moved to Winnipeg in 1877.
Since five families in the city had children of school age in 1873, it became necessary to establish a school. As some of the families lived on North Third Street and others in the Lincoln Park area, they could not agree on a suitable location, and each faction held a school of its own. Claim shanties served as school buildings, and a drayman, one of Captain Griggs' hired men, taught the north end school.
There was no dentist in the community in the early days of Grand Forks. Alex Walstrom, a blacksmith, used a pair of homemade tongs about two feet long to pull aching teeth.
On October 26, 1875, Captain Griggs filed a plat of the original town site of Grand Forks, covering 90 acres of his claim. The following spring Viets filed the plat of his first addition. In 1879 the village of Grand Forks was organized and three years later was incorporated as a city.
Although life at the little river post lacked many refinements, the social aspect was not entirely neglected. Weddings were carried out with pomp and ceremony, and anniversaries appropriately celebrated. A popular social custom, New Year calling, was introduced on January 1, 1876. Groups of men rode together in sleighs to call on their friends, and then drove to the Hudson's Bay Company store, purchased flour, sugar, tea, and other necessities, which they took to the homes of the destitute.
Until 1879 traffic moved by steamboat or stage, but the coming of the Great Northern Railway in that year brought the rapid decline of both these early modes of transportation. Their end was hastened by the extension of the Northern Pacific Railway from Crookston, Minn., to Grand Forks two years later.
George Walsh founded the Plaindealer, the first newspaper northwest of Fargo, in 1874, and published it without competition for five years until George Winship started the Herald. There began a continuous quarrel between the two editors which was at times decidedly heated, although when the plant of the Plaindealer burned in 1884 Winship shared his equipment with Walsh. While acknowledging the courtesy, the Plaindealer continued to attack the editorial policies of its benefactor. Winship eventually purchased his rival's paper and merged it with the Herald, which since 1881 has been published as a daily. The late J. D. Bacon, when publisher of the Herald, established the Lilac Hedge Farm northwest of Grand Forks to demonstrate the practicability of diversified agriculture and the value of using purebred stock.
Colonel Viets' mill on South Third Street was one of the first industries established in the city, and was the only flour mill until 1882, when John McDonald founded a mill at the present corner of Fifth Street and Kittson Avenue. This was operated later by the Diamond Milling Company and then sold to the Russell-Miller Milling Company.
Cream of Wheat was first processed in Grand Forks and was manufactured locally for a number of years about the turn of the century, before the manufacturer moved to Minneapolis.
In Grand Forks politics and the weather were of great importance. Elections were always exciting. When D. M. Holmes ran for mayor in 1886 his friend James J. Hill ordered all Great Northern trains of the north, south, and west lines to run into Grand Forks so that the train crews could vote for Holmes. Against such odds Holmes' opponent withdrew.
A tornado that struck Grand Forks in June 1887 killed two women and wrecked many buildings. Ten years later the city experienced one of the worst floods in its history. The Red River made an all-time record by flowing four miles an hour. Houses along the river flats were floating or completely submerged. The piers of the west approach of the Minnesota Avenue bridge were swept by ice, and the Northern Pacific tracks were under water. When water filled the basement of the Herald building, the staff was forced to resort to hand composition to continue publication. Many families lived in second stories, and on nearby farms platforms were built on the roofs of barns and fenced in for the livestock, which was fed from boats.
In 1890 a brick plant was established in Grand Forks, and another in 1900. Other industries which sprang up during this period were bottling works, breweries, and foundries. Besides the Grand Forks Herald, two weeklies were established, the Red River Valley Citizen and the Normanden, the latter in the Norwegian language.
In 1919 a group of farmers and business men from Grand Forks and the surrounding territory opened the Northern Packing Company, designed to handle 500 hogs and 150 cattle and sheep daily, with a plant one and one-half miles north of the city (see Tour 1). The State Mill and Elevator began operation in 1922 (see Tour 1). A candy company that uses locally produced beet sugar has an annual output of about 1,000,000 pounds. A large potato warehouse with laboratory and experimental department was constructed in 1935 at the corner of North Third Street and Lewis Boulevard.
The population of Grand Forks has increased from 200 in 1873 to 17,112 in 1930, and is composed of many nationalities, although more than 75 percent of the native whites are of Norwegian or Canadian descent. A small section of the city bounded by Sixth and Eighth Avenues North and Twentieth and Twenty-third Streets North is a Scandinavian community designated locally as "Little Norway." Here Norwegian is spoken almost exclusively by the older people, although the children have acquired American speech and habits. Norwegian Independence Day, Syttende Mai (May 17), is celebrated by the residents of this district and their homes are then decorated with Norwegian flags. Much political activity of an earlier period centered about this little community, since it generally voted as a bloc. Politicians of that day believed that the candidate who was most liberal with ale would receive the community's vote, and on the eve of election torchlight parades marched through the streets of this district and candidates for office generously dispensed both oratory and beer.
POINTS OF INTEREST
1. FEDERAL BUILDING, 1st. Ave. N. at N. 4th St., houses the post office, United States courtroom, a branch of the United States Immigration Service, and the Federal Reemployment office. The superstructure is of white Bedford stone and pressed brick, with a base of solid granite. It has a 12-foot cornice of stone with carved and blocked ornaments. The lobby has marble floors and high wainscoting of marble, contrasting shades being used for borders. Fixtures are of quarter-sawed oak.
2. CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, 1st and 2nd Aves. N. between 4th and 5th Sts., has an auditorium unit constructed entirely without windows. It was the first public building in North Dakota to utilize indirect lighting throughout. It was erected in 1936-37 with WPA assistance at a cost of $275,000, and includes a pipe organ, the gift of the Grand Forks Music Association.
3. SORLIE MEMORIAL BRIDGE across the Red River connects Grand Forks, N. Dak., and East Grand Forks, Minn., on US 2. It is dedicated to the late A. G. Sorlie, former Governor of the State, and was built in 1929.
4. RADIO STATION KFJM (open daily 2:30-5 p.m.), top floor of the First National Bank Bldg., cor. DeMers Ave. and N. 4th St., is one of the few State-owned university radio stations in the United States. It is leased to a local company. A studio is maintained at the university.
5. TRIANGLE APARTMENTS, 5th and Chestnut Sts. and 5th Ave. S., mark the site of two of the most important buildings in early Grand Forks history. The city's first school building stood across the street from this triangle, on the courthouse site. In 1883 the old building was moved into the triangle and converted into the Park Hotel. The Arlington House, a hotel built by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1873, was also moved to this lot and in 1906 Col. Andrew Knutson purchased both buildings and operated them as the Arlington-Park Hotel. This hotel was torn down in recent years and the lumber used in the construction of the apartment building that now occupies the site.
6. GRAND FORKS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 4th and 5th Sts. S. between Kittson and Bruce Aves., was erected in 1913 and designed by Buechner and Orth of St. Paul. It is a three-story Indiana limestone building of modified Classic design, with a figure of Justice surmounting its dome. The halls are finished in white marble with mural decorations. Embellishing the upper part of the rotunda are four painted lunettes showing typical North Dakota scenes.
7. SOLDIER'S MONUMENT, 6th St. S. and Belmont Rd., was donated by George B. Winship, early newspaper publisher, as a memorial to 168 local Civil War veterans, whose names are engraved on a bronze tablet. Mounted on a square base of Vermont granite, the monument represents a Union soldier "at rest."
8. CENTRAL PARK (picnicking not allowed), Red River bank, S. end of 3rd St., is a beauty spot and playground. The flower gardens, a mass of brilliant bloom, are lighted at night. At the bandstand in the center of the park concerts are presented, usually each week, during the summer months. In front of the bandstand are millstones from the first flour mill in the Red River Valley, which was built on the site of the city waterworks plant in 1877. An outdoor skating rink is lighted for winter skating. The warming house is on the site of the first building erected within the present boundaries of the city. Across the drive from the ball diamond are the toboggan slides, partially hidden from view by evergreen trees and shrubs.
9. UNIVERSITY PARK (playground equipment and supervised play), University Ave. bet. 24th and 25th Sts., has a children's library at the clubhouse, and children's band concerts (weekly, June-July) are given by the university band.
10. LINCOLN PARK (municipal golf links, tennis courts, ski slide, picnic and play equipment), Belmont Rd. at S. edge of city, contains the old Red River Oxcart Trail (see Tour 1) which crossed the little hill on which the clubhouse stands. Later, when the settlement became a stage station on the St. Paul-Fort Garry Trail, the Stewart House was built here and housed Grand Forks' first post office. This old log building is now the kitchen of the clubhouse.
11. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA is at the W. end of University Ave. 2 m. from the principal business section of Grand Forks. (University bus at 3rd St. and DeMers Ave., fare 10c.)
The campus facing the avenue is bordered by a low hedge, and the two main entrances are marked by large brick pylons. Tree-shaded roads wind past the buildings and along the banks of English Coulee. In the spring and summer the wide expanses of green lawn are broken by plots of flowers and clumps of lilacs, spires, and flowering almond. All of the buildings erected since 1910 are in modern collegiate Gothic style, a modification of true English Gothic architecture adapted especially for educational institutions.
The University of North Dakota was established by the Territorial Legislature before North Dakota became a State. The cornerstone for "Old Main" was laid October 12, 1883, on the prairie beside the banks of the winding English Coulee, and September 8, 1884, the university opened classes with 79 students and a staff of 4 instructors. Enrollment now numbers almost 3,000 students and the school has more than 130 instructors.
Selection of a site two miles from the city was opposed by many of the townspeople who thought the university should be located at the south end of Third Street, on the present site of Central Park. During the tornado of 1887 the roof of Old Main, then the only building on the campus, was blown almost to the south end of Third Street. Agitation was begun to bring the remainder of the building to join the roof, but State officials refused to consider the plan, chiefly because the property originally used was school land. Old Main was remodeled and a women's dormitory erected near it. That settled the controversy.
For students who were unable to live on the campus, transportation was a troublesome problem. Only a country road of sticky Red River Valley gumbo connected the campus with the city, and, except for the fortunate few who caught rides on horse-drawn vehicles, city students walked to classes. During severe weather it was often necessary to flag a freight or passenger train of the Great Northern to make the trip to town. About 1900 a trolley line was established to the university, and despite its erratic service it greatly facilitated attendance of nonresident students.
Although given an endowment of 86,080 acres of public lands in 1889 when it became the University of North Dakota, there were many years when the school derived no revenue from this source, but had to depend entirely upon legislative appropriation. In 1895 Governor Allin vetoed most of the appropriation, leaving money for the janitor's salary but none for the faculty. The institution was kept open through private contributions, and President Webster Merrifield and other professors served without salary during a trying two-year period. Despite financial difficulties, attendance at the university in its first 15 years increased more than 40 percent and in 1898 President Merrifield reported to the legislature that the facilities of the institution were inadequate. Continued expansion added law, premedical, and commerce schools, and mechanical, electrical, and mining engineering departments at the university by the end of the 1901 term.
During the first six years of university history there were only two buildings on the campus. The main building, later known as Merrifield Hall, contained classrooms, book store, post office, and men's dormitory. The other building, later named Davis Hall for Hannah E. Davis, one of its early matrons, housed the girls' dormitory, and, in the basement, the university dining hall. Alumni of those days relate that the dining hall was a very popular place. When meals were ready to be served a napkin was hung out the basement window, and the first student in the main building who spied the sign, regardless of whether he happened to be in a class or not, yelled, "Rag's out!" The shout was taken up and a stampede to the dining room followed. This custom prevailed for several years. One day President Merrifield was showing some of his Eastern friends through the institution when suddenly "Rag's out" reverberated through the halls. The visitors wondered if there was a riot, and the mortified president realized for the first time how the dinner call sounded to outsiders. He suppressed it with difficulty, after many student debates on the sacredness of college traditions.
With the advent of football teams, "Odz, odz, dzi," an imitation of a Sioux war cry, became the college yell, and has continued to the present.
When a delegation from the first North Dakota legislature visited the campus on a tour of inspection in 1889, residents of the girls' dormitory held a tea in their honor. In order to improve upon the barrenness of the sparsely furnished parlor, pieces were borrowed from the girls' rooms and from friends. The expedient was more successful than the girls had anticipated, for the legislators considered the furnishings more than adequate and thereupon decreased the amount allowed in the budget for dormitory equipment.
Although the University of North Dakota has been in existence only 55 years (1938), it has had its share of distinguished alumni, among whom is Maxwell Anderson (class of 1911), playwright, author of What Price Glory, Mary of Scotland, Winterset, and other dramas. In 1933 his play Both Your Houses was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson, explorer, attended the university from 1899 to 1902, and left at the request of the faculty. His escapades, though doubtless improved upon with the years, are quite typical of him. It is said he attended classes as seldom as possible, yet always received the highest grades. The story goes that he went to his calculus class only on the first day of the term, then returned for the final examination, which the professor allowed him to write, with gloomy prophecies of his ruin. Stefansson's mark was 98. The professor could not help remarking that he had done well considering that he had attended only one class. "And," retorted Stefansson, "if I hadn't come here the first day I'd have got one hundred."
The Arctic explorer has been credited with pranks such as releasing a small pig on the speaker's platform at convocation, and rolling a keg of beer across the campus to win a bet when North Dakota was a very dry State. There was then no trolley from Grand Forks to the campus, and President Merrifield was driven the two miles to and from town in his private carriage. One day Stefansson saw the carriage parked downtown. The driver was old in service, and when Stefansson stepped into the carriage and said "Home, Peter" in a good imitation of the president's voice, Peter suspected nothing. Stefansson rode in comfort to the campus, while President Merrifield, it is said, walked. Expelled in 1902, Stefansson was called back to his Alma Mater in 1930 to have the LL. D. degree conferred on him in recognition of his contributions to science.
The east campus road passes the Law Building, Woodworth Hall, Chemistry Building, and Babcock Hall. In Woodworth, the school of education, is the campus broadcasting studio. The University of North Dakota was the second university in the United States to offer courses in radio administration, and engineering students use the KFJM transmitter, adjacent to the campus, for practical class work in technical radio instruction. Just S. of the Chemistry Building are the university tennis courts, and a nine-hole golf course is E. of Memorial Stadium (L) erected in 1927. The university athletic department is a member of the North Central Conference and books games with schools from coast to coast. The University Museum on the top floor of Babcock Hall (open 9-5 daily) contains a large collection of Indian artifacts and geological and historical items.
The road curves back of Babcock and the Commons past Camp Depression (L), established in 1933, where railroad cabooses are fitted up for enterprising students to provide cooperative accommodations at a minimum cost. Left of Camp Depression is the shiny arched steel Winter Sports Building. Around the curve is the Armory (L) where athletic and social events and weekly convocations are held. The road to the R. passes Budge Hall (R), men's dormitory, built in 1889; Old Merrifield Hall (L), generally known as "Old Main," the first building on the campus and now occupied by administrative offices, post office, book store, and offices of the extension division; New Merrifield Hall (L), the liberal arts college building, completed in 1929; Science Hall (R), housing the medical school and State Public Health Laboratories; and the Library (L), containing 77,000 catalogued books and periodicals and about 17,500 uncatalogued Government documents.
Curving L., the road passes the President's House (R), a spacious Georgian Colonial brick residence. Next is Macnie Hall, a cooperative men's residence hall, named for John Macnie, for 20 years a member of the faculty, and composer of the university Alma Mater. Vine-covered Chandler Hall (R), named for Elwin Chandler, dean emeritus of the school of engineering, is headquarters during Engineers' Day held the last Friday in April each year. Davis Hall (R), women's dormitory, is the second oldest building on the campus, erected in 1887. It houses the home economics department.
English Coulee (R), so-called because an Englishman is said to have drowned in it, borders the campus on the W. Between Davis Hall and the Women's Gymnasium the stream curves, creating the impression that the opposite bank is a wooded island. This far bank is the stage of the Bankside Theater, and the concave bank facing it is used to seat the audience. The theater is the scene of an Interfraternity Sing held the last week in May.
The original Bankside Theater, about one block N. of the present site, was dedicated in 1914 and is said to have been the first open air theater to make use of the natural curve of a stream to separate the stage from the auditorium. The initial performance given here, A Pageant of the Northwest, was written by students of the Sock and Buskin Society (now the Dakota Playmakers) under the direction of Prof. Frederick Koch, who is distinguished for his work in American folk drama.
The banks of English Coulee have fostered both drama and romance. College sweethearts spend their evenings by this stream, admiring the reflection of the moon in the water. The custom is known locally as "coulee-banking."
Thirteen social fraternities, including 11 national groups, are represented at the university, and there are 10 sororities, 9 of them national. The houses along Fraternity Row on University Avenue and the other streets near the campus present the architecture of many nations and periods. A French chateau shouldering a stucco cottage, a graceful Georgian Colonial residence standing between an English country house and an Italian mansion, and houses of Spanish and English design form a quaint architectural democracy that is, perhaps, a fitting background for the social life of a student body representing various nations.
12. WESLEY COLLEGE, N. of University Ave. opposite the University of North Dakota, is the first of the Methodist schools in the United States designated by that name and the first church school to affiliate with a State university. Its residence halls are open to students of all church affiliations, as are the classes in religion, music, and expression. Work in any department of Wesley College is credited toward university degrees.
The campus contains four buildings, Corwin, Larimore, Sayre, and Robertson Halls, constructed of white brick with trimmings of white glazed terra cotta in Grecian style. Robertson Hall, the newest building, contains the administrative offices, school of religion, and expression department. This building, costing $40,000, was made possible by the contribution of an alumnus, John M. Hancock, and his family of Hartsdale, N. Y., and was completely furnished by Mrs. Hancock. Corwin Hall houses the well-equipped music department. Larimore Hall, the women's dormitory, is immediately behind Corwin, while the men's dormitory, Sayre Hall, adjoins Robertson Hall.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
North Dakota State Mill and Elevator, 1 m.; Red River Oxcart Trail, 1.5 m.; Northern Packing Plant, 1.5 m.; Grand Forks Silver Fox Farm, 4 m. (see Tour 1). American Sugar Refining Co. plant, 2 m. (see Minn. Tour 7).