Interesting Facts about North Dakota

• When he signed the statehood bills for the two Dakotas on the same day, President Benjamin Harrison would not reveal which one he signed first. Consequently, no one knows whether North Dakota is technically the 39th or the 40th state.
• Seventeen years before Theodore Roosevelt was elected president, Medora storekeeper Joe Ferris publicly predicted the event.
• Among the state's interesting archaeological discoveries are the rows of carved turtles and the rings of boulders. The turtles were thought to have pointed to water sources, and the rocks probably held down the bottoms of tepees.
• A Crow Indian drew a message in the Missouri River sand. It consisted of a cluster of dots representing U.S. troops within a circle. Then he slashed out the dots with a stick. A river captain understood the message and carried the first news of the Custer massacre down the river to Bismarck.
• Inventor D. H. Houston named his new film Kodak, a variation of Dakota that became known around the world.
• A Portal golf course is probably the only place where a golfer might make a tee shot in the United States and end up in a hole in Canada.