Many North Dakotans will soon be ringing in the New Year with a toast. Here are some conversation starters from the state collections for your New Year’s parties.

1. Turtle Mountain Brewery Barrel Branding Iron

Local breweries were a thriving business in northern Dakota Territory. The Turtle Mountain Brewery served the Rolette County area from around 1886 until 1889 when North Dakota joined the union as a dry state. Carl Stofft, a German immigrant, founded the Dunseith-based business. Stofft worked with Francis Higgins, a cooper who constructed the vats and barrels likely marked with this brand.

The “TURTLE MT. BR.Y” brand. SHSND 2018.95.1

2. Prohibition Beer

When the 18th Amendment took effect in 1920, not much changed for North Dakotans. Many had been ignoring the dry state’s prohibition laws since 1889. On Oct. 8, 1930, undercover Prohibition agent Leo St. Martin bought this bottle of homemade beer for 45 cents from Lance Zimmer at a Bismarck residence. The bottle was labeled as evidence in the liquor trafficking case against Zimmer. Zimmer pled guilty to the charge.

Beer bottle with evidence label from the U.S. Prohibition Service. SHSND 14227

3. Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Ruler

Here’s one for the teetotalers. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) promoted social reform by encouraging abstinence from alcohol. Members were loud proponents of both Prohibition and woman suffrage. Viola Leissman, a member of Bismarck’s WCTU chapter, collected this ruler.

WCTU ruler (front and back). The initials “EL” on the back are from Viola’s son, Emerson. SHSND 2011.30.19

4. Dakota Beer Six-Pack

In 1932, North Dakotans voted to repeal the state’s ban on alcohol with federal Prohibition ending the following year. Around this same time, the state also legalized the manufacture, sale, and distribution of beer. But it took decades for the brewing industry in North Dakota to revive. Dakota Malting and Brewing Company was North Dakota’s first post-Prohibition brewery. The Bismarck-based company produced its first batch of Dakota Beer in 1961 but closed its doors a few years later in 1965.

“Dakota Beer: Brewed in the heart of barley country.” SHSND 1978.41.1

5. Bismarck Distillery Canned Cocktail

While beer regained its legal status in the state in 1933, liquor had to wait three more years. Nowadays, craft breweries and distilleries are successful businesses. A North Dakotan bought this Bismarck Distillery apple pie-flavored vodka cocktail while visiting Send It! 24/7 Cornhole in Mandan.

A ready-to-drink cocktail from Bismarck Distillery. SHSND 2024.1.1

I hope your New Year’s is made brighter by these fun facts from the past. Cheers!

The State Historical Society of North Dakota’s new searchable database—fiNDhistory—allows the public to view, browse, and search holdings as they are added, scanned, and edited in real time. Here are three tips to search for State Archives collections on the site:

1. Search within a specific directory

The State Archives holdings include local and state government, manuscript, photograph, and library collections. These unique collection types are stored and managed separately on-site and appear as distinct searchable directories on fiNDhistory. In addition to these directories, there are indexes for State Historical Society publications (titles are listed on the landing page) and Foundation tributes managed by the State Archives. More indexes will likely to be added in the future.

As an alternative to a global search, which includes all directories (at all levels), you can search within a specific directory to quickly return a manageable list of results. On the home page, click on the desired collection type/directory to search within it. There, you will find a search box where you can type your term.

Archival directories and indexes (highlighted) may be searched globally or individually.

Data within fiNDhistory is set up to mirror how collections and materials within them are physically organized. The library collection is keyword search only, but searches within the other collection types include the option to narrow the search by archival level (found below the search box). Collection level records describe each collection as a whole, providing an overview and selected terms that apply to all boxes and materials within. The archival level “collection” filter searches this broad collection-level information. Series is an intellectual level of description used by archivists that is great for physical organization of collections but the least useful for searching. File unit records include titles and dates of the contents of each folder in every collection. This level is probably the best for searching because most collections have file descriptions. Additionally, a file unit search may pull results that a collection level search would not. Finally, the archival level item searches all item records that have been created within each collection. Note that this will not search for every single item in the archives, only the items that have been described. The quantity of item records vary widely across directories: Photograph and manuscript collections often include item records, while local and state government collections rarely do. The archival level dropdown also allows for a search of all levels.

Drop-down option to select the level of the archival record to be searched.

It should be noted that all collection types contain photographs, but photograph collections consist of only photographs. Audiovisual recordings are primarily found in manuscript collections (but are also in local and state government records).

2. How to find scanned items

To determine if something is digitized, begin your search. A global search will include results from State Archives and museum collections and indexes and will order results first by directory, then by archival level.

If scanned images are available, they will appear alongside records in the results. Click on the thumbnail to enlarge.

Thumbnails of scanned images appear next to item records in the search results.

Find available document scans or other media files by clicking into the records.

Then, if documents or other resources have been digitized (into nonimage formats), there will be a file under related media. Click the file name (not the icon) to access the file.

Select the appropriate program to open the file if needed.

Note that a search may be restricted to “online only,” revealing only those results with records or adjacent records (such as collections with at least one digitized item within).

3. View a collection as a whole

To view an entire collection, conduct a global or directory-specific search. You can narrow a search to “collection” for archival level or select a collection level record from global search results by clicking on the collection number. At the bottom of the page, after the collection-level description, there is a section listing the materials in the collection. These might include series, file unit, and item records.

Click on the title of the record for more information.

The right side of the page will describe the selected record. Related records will appear to the left and are searchable.

These three tips for searching fiNDhistory are a great starting point. Additional tips for navigating the site can be found on this YouTube video. If you have any questions or need assistance, we are happy to help! Contact us at archives@nd.gov or 701.328.2091.