Early Mandan leaders understood the economic stability that a federal facility could bring to the area. In 1908, they had a bill introduced in Congress to establish an Indian school. The legislation passed, but Bismarck business leaders maneuvered to have the school built on their side of the Missouri River, which had no bridge connecting the two cities at the time. Mandan's promoters did not welcome the outcome.
Business leaders also understood that their own success depended on the success of farmers and ranchers. Early Dakota settlers brought favorite varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains, and trees from their former homes, but many did not thrive under conditions on the high prairie. Efforts to secure a federal facility therefore turned toward regional agriculture.
A. E. Thorberg, W. A. Lanterman, and C. L. Timmerman pressed for an agricultural experiment station after a prairie fire devastated many acres. They lobbied Congress the following year for a research laboratory that would develop improved plant strains. The bill failed, as it did again in 1911. A bill establishing the Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory finally passed in August 1912, although funding the facility required a separate effort.
Mandan businesses pooled their resources and purchased land for approximately $32 per acre. The contributors included a bank, several mercantile companies, a drugstore, an insurance company, a newspaper, a clothing store, and a tailor. James Hanley, a prominent area politician, persuaded the state to reimburse them. The land became state property and was leased to the federal government for 99 years.
The first buildings were erected in spring 1913, when workers also planted a windbreak a quarter-mile long and 14 rows wide. Scientists broke sod that year and planted several blocks of trees in 1914. Although the facility had been established, Congress had appropriated no money for research. The first agronomist, J. C. Brinsmeade, initially purchased equipment and hired workers with his own money.
Robert Wilson placed newspaper advertisements offering landowners saplings and planting plans through the Windbreak Tree Program. More than 4,000 landowners applied. Wilson and five forestry students inspected each site, traveling by horse and buggy, train, and automobile. The following spring, more than 1,300 farms in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana planted windbreaks.
In later years, fruit breeding produced hardier apples, plums, and apricots. Improved vegetables helped support local seed companies such as Oscar H. Will and Company, while research on grains and other crops produced greater resistance to drought and disease.
The laboratory's research into feeding, breeding, and management practices also improved dairy herds. Although the dairy program ended in 1955, participating farms in Morton and Emmons counties still lead the state in dairy production.
Congress withdrew funding for agricultural research in 1935, during the Great Depression. Mandan business leaders enlisted more than 4,000 recipients of windbreak trees to contact Congress, and the laboratory's appropriation was restored. Funding was removed from the federal budget again in 1996 and 1997. Farmers and ranchers again mobilized to save the laboratory, and its funding was restored.
Mandan owes much to Thorberg's promotion of the station and to Representative L. B. Hanna and Senators Asle Gronna and Porter J. McCumber, who helped obtain the necessary congressional appropriation. The Northern Great Plains Experiment Station remains the nation's largest federal dryland experiment station outside Beltsville, Maryland.
Dryland farming in all its phases is carried on at the station, which also develops new grains and fruits. Commercially released fruits include five apple varieties, three crabapples, four plums, two cherry plums, an apricot, and several currants. The station has also developed new vegetable varieties. Although its principal focus remains food crops, it has released hardy flower varieties as well.
Bismarck-based Oscar H. Will and Company benefited from its proximity to the experiment station. An article about the seed company's history is available from Farm Collector.
The station has played an important role in advancing food production. The Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory has also taken on an additional role in green-energy research, including carbon sequestration and developing switchgrass varieties for potential ethanol feedstocks. Other projects include improving the nutritional value of beef, reducing production steps while increasing crop yields, and creating new forage cultivars.