The first game and fish laws in what would become the state of North Dakota were enacted in 1861. In 1875, the Territorial Legislature placed limits on hunting quail and some water birds.
11/24/2009: Traditionally, stories involving both North Dakota and forests result in a bad joke, usually ending with a punch-line about the state's only trees being telephone poles. While the jokes are made in good fun, they contain a grain of truth. After all, the state is the least forested in the country, with trees covering only about one percent of North Dakota's total acreage. But despite the jokes, and the relatively few trees - well at least those that aren't being used to support phone lines - North Dakota was actually home to a National Forest covering over 14,000 acres in present-day Slope County.
Near the end of 1909, Republican US Senator Martin Johnson of North Dakota suddenly passed away. Governor Burke, a Democrat, soon appointed state senator Fountain L. Thompson as interim senator, pending a special election.