Bicentennial Story #54-Bismarck Capitol-1883

Bicentennial Story #54-Bismarck Capitol-1883

James Bryce's account of the laying of the cornerstone for the North Dakota state capitol building in Bismarck in 1883.

7/15/1975

Father Louis Pfaller

This recording cannot be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Dickinson Museum Center. This recording may be freely used for education uses, so long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this recording file is permitted without written permission of the Dickinson Museum Center.

mp3

audio reel, analog, 1/4 inch polyester tape

English

BS-054b

Bismarck, ND

Copyright Stark County Historical Society and Dickinson Museum Center

James Bryce, the British author was present in Bismarck for the laying of the capitol cornerstone in 1883. He wrote: "The feature which struck us Europeans most was the spot chosen for the Capitol. It was not in the city . . . it was nearly a mile off, on the top of a hill in the brown and dusty prairie. 'Why here?' we asked. 'Is it because you mean to enclose the building in a public park?' 'By no means; the capitol is intended to be the centre of the city; it is in this direction that the city is to grow.' [these Americans] see the country not merely as it is, but as it will be, twenty, fifty, a hundred years hence,...when the seedlings shall have grown to forest trees."

This is Bicentennial Story No. 54, prepared by Father Louis Pfaller, for the Stark County Historical Society.

Bruce Nelson, Land of Dacotahs, 136

Sound recordings

1:14

128kbps

1970 1979

Bicentennial tape #4, Bicentennial stories 51-66