The Infomercantile – Page 8 – Lost layout when upgrading WP, I'm working on it

Easter Egg Hunt, 1961.

Post author By Derek Dahlsad
Post date April 12, 2009

Severely underexposed slide from this set, made legible through Photoshop: a small child, bundled tightly against the elements, picking up an Easter egg near a propane tank, 1961.

Tags 1960s, 1961, children, easter

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Zoo Bears, 1930s.

Post author By Derek Dahlsad
Post date April 10, 2009

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Two bears in a wooded enclosure, 1930s.

Tags 1930s, bears, zoo

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1934 Ford Sedan

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A 1934 Ford Sedan, two-door body. Taken during the mid-1930s.

Tags 1930s, 1934, cars, ford, sedan

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Niagara Falls Ride, 1905.

Post author By Derek Dahlsad
Post date April 8, 2009

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You might think Disney invented immersive amusement park rides, but he was a latecomer to the game. As trolley car services grew in cities, they looked for ways to expand ridership. One popular solution: buy land towards the end of the line, and build an amusement park. You can’t count on short-line railroad entrepeneurs to also be experts in weekend frivolities, so they had to get their attractions from somebody, and possibly a creative genius like Joseph Turner. Turner operated his New York business on the premise that the people of Kansas City would love the chance to visit Niagara Falls, complete with synthetic wind, water, and Native American legends. Read the entire ad here.

Tags 1900s, 1905, advertisement, amusement park

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Twin Elm Farm, 1938.

Post author By Derek Dahlsad
Post date April 3, 2009

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“Twin Elm Farm”, from a set of rural Wisconsin photos taken around 1938.

Tags early 20th century farm photos, winter, wisconsin history

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Seated Boy, Book in Lap, 1900s.

Post author By Derek Dahlsad
Post date April 1, 2009

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A hand-colored portrait of a seated boy, holding a book in his lap. Appears 1900s.

Tags 1900s, black and white photo, boy, children, hand-colored, people

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Red River Flood, 1952.

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Mrs. Colin Campbell would not be ousted from her home: she is standing on the roof of her back porch, after climbing out a second story window. The water is about 4 feet away from covering her feet, but she was non-plussed; in the accompanying article, she defied police attempts to evacuate her, declaring it was a good time to catch up on her embroidery. On April 16, 1952, the Red River crested at around 35 feet; a USGS paper declared it the highest crest since 1897. Her address, 106 1st Avenue South, no longer exists; Urban Renewal wisely razed the neighborhood south of Main and east of 4th street, which was regularly subject to inundation even in light flood years.

Tags 1950s, 1952, fargo, fargophilia, flood, red river

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Red River Flood, 1969.

Post author By Derek Dahlsad
Post date March 30, 2009

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In April, 1969, the Red River of the North overflowed its banks, reaching 37.3 feet on the 15th, and expected to crest at 38 feet a few days later. This aerial photo appeared on the front page of the Fargo Forum on the 15th, showing the dike’s position in relation to saving city hall, the Civic Center, and the year-old library. Today, the dike runs down 2nd street, atop the river bank, but in 1969, they let the swollen river cover the big parking lot, and ran the dike along 3rd street, just outside City Hall’s front doors; the Town House hotel, at the far right in the big picture, looks on the verge of flooding, but safe enough.

Tags 1960s, 1969, city hall, civic center, fargo, flood, library

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Red River Flood, 1897.

Post author By Derek Dahlsad
Post date March 26, 2009

Click for full imageToday, Fargo-Moorhead is readying itself for an unbelievable 40ft+ crest of the Red River on Friday, and are preparing, around the clock, by filling sandbags and building dikes. Twelve years ago we had another huge flood which filled some neighborhoods with water, a hundred year flood so to speak. In fact, a hundred years before that hundred-year flood was the 1897 flood, seen above: floods of this type weren’t completely unusual — urban renewal cleared out the most flood-prone neighborhoods during the 1970s on both sides of the river, which had been routinely inundated whenever the river got high. The area of Moorhead in the photo above, however, is still on high ground and is residential: the building on the left seems to still exist, while the one on the right does not. The USGS believes the 1897 flood hit the 40-foot mark as well.