Today in History: March 9, 2025

On this day in 1950, The Forum carried news of the U.S. Senate voting 59 to 20 to repeal federal taxes on oleomargarine, moving the bill to the president for final approval. This decision ended a 64-year-long dispute between dairy farmers, consumers, and margarine manufacturers, making colored margarine more affordable.

In local news, North Dakota and western Minnesota were taking stock of significant damage from a sleet storm and blizzard. Here's the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:

As North Dakota and western Minnesota began taking stock yesterday of the terrific damage inflicted by Tuesday’s sleet storm and blizzard, the full impact of the storm became apparent, especially to the railroads, the phone and power companies and co-operatives—and their customers.

While no overall damage estimate was available, the cost of repairs alone will unquestionably run into the millions.

The Northwestern Bell telephone alone sets its minimum damage at $400,000—and some of the firm’s employees figured that the estimate was low.

There were thousands of telephone, telegraph and electric power poles down throughout the area—many snapped off as though the storm had set off a charge of powder inside them.

The Great Northern had 700 poles down between Grand Forks and Devils Lake. Northwestern Bell counted 500 poles down between Fargo and Verona.

Company officials weren’t making any predictions, but they agreed that many communities will be without electric power for several days to a week or more.

There was no estimate as to when service would be restored to rural lines served by REA cooperatives, which also were hard hit.

Power and phone company officials reported aerial and auto surveys carried out yesterday either “confirmed our worst expectations,” or were “even worse than we expected—and we expected the worst.”

Men who had restored wire service to the state in 1932, when another sleet storm blanketed the state, agreed that Tuesday’s storm was just as bad, if not worse, because in many instances poles had been snapped in the middle instead of near the bottom.

Poles that break near the bottom can be set up on a temporary basis until the crews have time to put in new poles.

In addition, they pointed out that in the 18 years since the 1932 sleet storm, thousands of miles of new telephone, private power, and REA power lines have been erected in the state.

The overall damage toll, because of this, will be much greater. It will also be higher in dollars because of higher costs.

Realizing the big job ahead of them, the power and phone companies have called in repair crews and equipment from all over the northwest. Bell Telephone will have 65 to 70 crews at work by tonight.

Emergency crews brought in by Northern States power last night restored power to Dilworth and points east, which had been without electricity since early Tuesday.

The brunt of the sleet storm apparently swept across North Dakota in the area between the Red River and a line through Jamestown and Devils Lake.

The high winds which followed it knocked down and twisted great sections of the east-west power and phone lines. Lines running north and south did not incur too much damage, the companies reported.

Nor was the damage limited to the area west of Jamestown-Devils Lake. The area south of U.S. 10 west of Jamestown was isolated.

Between Riverdale and Bismarck, 215 poles were down and “thousands and thousands” of line breaks, the phone company reported.

Cyrus Wright, vice president in charge of operations of Otter Tail Power Company in Fergus Falls, said his company was charting damage reports last night brought by plane and car.

“It looks just as bad as 1932,” he said, “although in most instances it seems that relatively short stretches of line is down. We haven’t run into anything yet like the Easter storm of 1947, when we had 20 miles down in one piece.”

The company serves many communities in North Dakota. He said there was current from Wahpeton to Buffalo, that Cooperstown had picked up some of the area to the south of that town, that Lisbon and Enderlin are being served by auxiliary local plants, that there is current in the mainline to LaMoure, and that Oakes has auxiliary current.

But a score or more of other communities were without power and did not know whether it would be one day or one week before they would have electricity again.

Although reports were fragmentary because of lack of communications, airplane and auto surveys conducted by the telephone and power companies showed that their poles and lines had taken a beating.

For instance, Northwestern Bell Telephone reported it had spent $85,000 and the 1949 construction season installing a rural network of phones within a 5-mile radius of Kindred in southeastern Cass County. Aerial observers reported yesterday that every east-west line and poles were down. Poles had snapped and splintered as though hit by a charge of explosive.

“It’s not a question of resetting poles and splicing lines, but one of reconstruction,” said Ole Benson, Northwestern Bell construction supervisor, who flew over the area yesterday.

He reported much the same situation existed between Gwinner and Stirum in Sargent County. There was only one pole standing in a 5½-mile stretch.

When the storm hit Tuesday, Northwestern Bell ordered six carloads of poles. Yesterday it ordered another six carloads, for a total of 3,000 poles to be used in the Fargo area.

E. A. Goltz, a farmer near Leonard, drove into Fargo yesterday from Leonard and reported that telephone and power lines were down all the way. In some places, the lines of the two different services were completely snarled with each other.

R. R. Borman, North Dakota commercial manager of the phone company, said the repair crews of the phone companies and the power companies had been instructed not to energize any repaired power lines until they had been patrolled and cleared of any snarls with phone wires.

Borman early yesterday estimated the phone company damage alone at between $300,000 and $400,000; then as more reports came in, he set $400,000 as the minimum.

Southwest Fargo faced a power blackout at least until tonight, according to C. A. Thompson, general superintendent of the company’s Fargo division.

All repair crews except one, which stayed in Fargo, were concentrated in the damage area east of Fargo Wednesday, Thompson said. This included 17 men and three trucks from Minneapolis, making a force of 25-30 repairmen.

“People in West Fargo, not seeing any linemen working, might think we weren’t doing anything,” Thompson explained, “but the only way to get this thing cleaned up is to concentrate our efforts on one spot at a time.”

The concentration of effort paid off when Dilworth got current at 10:40 p.m.

He said he hoped to put all the crews on the West Fargo line, where 50 poles are down in a five-mile stretch, today. About a dozen were down between Moorhead and Glyndon.

However, Thompson was not optimistic about restoring power to West Fargo tonight, although he admitted it might be possible.

He explained that no cables capable of carrying the high voltage current were available for emergency stringing along the ground.

“It’s a case of setting up standby poles as quickly as we can—anything to get the power through,” he said, “and then replacing them later when we have time.”

The superintendent said it would take days before any dollar estimate of the damage could be made.

A crew working in Fargo was expected to have all outages in town restored last night except for the McGee addition.

Disrupted train service added to the power company handicaps when an emergency crew from Minneapolis was delayed almost 24 hours when their train was held up in Staples.

Montana-Dakota Utilities company reported about 30 percent of its customers in western North Dakota were without power early Wednesday.

The Fargo Forum contacted the Minot Daily News by a telephone circuit routed via Minneapolis and Billings at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Bob Cory, northwest editor of the News, said the power situation appeared to be better in northwestern North Dakota. This concurred with reports received by Northwestern Bell here.

Old Man Winter threw a perfect one-two punch at the communications system. The freezing rain early Tuesday built up layer upon layer of ice on wires and poles. Some telephone lines were burdened with an eighth to an inch of ice.

Then came the snow and winds ranging up to 60 and 70 miles an hour. The weight of ice was too much, and poles snapped like matchsticks.

B. M. Prigge, district manager for the Bell system, said thousands of wire breaks put 860 long-distance circuits out of operation.

At the peak, 127 Northwestern Bell and 175 privately-owned exchanges were isolated.