Bicentennial Story #118-Baseball, 1871

Bicentennial Story #118-Baseball, 1871

Account recorded on May 19, 1871 of a baseball challenge between Fort Berthold and Fort Stevenson.

10/13/1975

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-118

Fort Berthold, ND

Fort Stevenson, ND

Copyright Stark County Historical Society and Dickinson Museum Center

The new-fangled game of baseball was enthusiastically adopted by soldiers stationed at the frontier Dakota forts. A clerk at Fort Berthold recorded in his diary on May 19, 1871:

"Our Baseball Club received a challenge from the Independent Quills of Fort Stevenson. . . We accept the game--to be played Monday next."

Monday came, but the wind was so strong that the game had to be delayed. The assembled fans, however, witnesses a more deadly game. A band of Sioux ventured near the fort and the Gros Ventres sallied out after them. When the skirmish was over, one Sioux and one Gros Ventre lay dead. Then the baseball game was played, with the Fort Berthold nine thrashing the Fort Stevenson Independent quills, 26-13.

This is Bicentennial Story No. 118, prepared by Father Louis Pfaller for the Stark County Historical Society.

NDHQ, Vol. 10:15-16

Sound recordings

1:26

128kbps

1970 1979

Bicentennial tape #7, Bicentennial stories 108-127