Keith Norman

Excerpt   of

Firsts of North Dakota a 2023 work by Keith Norman

The first Fourth of July celebration held in what is now North Dakota was likely at Fort Rice in 1865.

General Alfred Sully established Fort Rice just north of where the Cannon Ball River flows into the Missouri River in 1864. Construction filled the first summer and the soldiers spent the first winter in a struggle for survival.

Records show 81 soldiers died during the winter of 1864 to 1865. Most can likely be attributed to malnutrition and scurvy from the predominately meat diet, although seven soldiers were killed in hostilities with Native Americans.

After getting through a winter like that, and word that Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered in April ending the American Civil War, the troops wanted to celebrate.

Not even the death by assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, also in April, could darken their mood.

Most of the information on the Fourth of July celebration comes from the post’s newspaper the “Frontier Scout.” It described the decorations as an arching banner over the post's entrance with 1776 on one end and 1865 on the other. Wreaths with G.W., we assume George Washington, and A.L., assuming Abraham Lincoln, also adorning the gates.

Games took up a good part of the day.

One foot race involved three laps around the fort. This was estimated at about a mile, although that measurement is suspect as the winning time came in well under four minutes. First prize for the race was $5 which would have been nearly half the monthly wage of a private in the army at the time.

Spectators for the race would have been the soldiers of the fort, the civilian employees of the post trader and a few other assorted folks passing through the area at the time. The best views of the events were likely on the elevated walkway on the inside of the fort’s walls.

Events then moved on to horse racing involving the officer’s and scout’s horses. Any prize money in these events was probably minor compared to the betting that went on.

The evening included a celebratory meal including soups, roasts, seafood and fruit desserts.

If the solders had eaten that well the winter before, they wouldn’t have had nearly 70 of them die of scurvy.

The celebration continued until the sun came up on July 5, 1865 and the tasks of a soldier at a frontier outpost resumed.

Fort Rice was abandon as a military post in 1878. The site of the first Fourth of July celebration in North Dakota is maintained as a state park.