Until time machines are invented, there is no way for us to truly experience what life was like a hundred years ago. Yes, believe it or not, it’s been more than 120 years since the start of the 20th century! It still feels like we were just leaving it, and yet here we are, more than two decades into the 21st century. Although we can’t go back and see the 1900s ourselves in person anymore, we can look through the literal lens of the people who lived in it via photographs. Here are 12 historic photos of North Dakota that show what life was like all those years ago, a whole century, in the early 1900s.

1. Downtown Grand Forks in 1909, very different to today. You certainly don't see horse-drawn carts parked on the side of the road anymore.
Wikimedia Commons
2. A school football team in North Dakota in the 1930s.
nonasuch/Flickr
3. A wooden dance hall in McLean County, built in 1923.
LOC/Wikimedia Commons
4. A church in Devils Lake, photo taken in the 1910s or early 1920s.
Presbyterian Historical Society/Wikimedia Commons
5. A train station in Fargo in the 1930s. Note the sign - only $5.70 for a round trip all the way to Minneapolis, with five trains leaving a day.
LOC/Wikimedia Commons
6. The Missouri River was busy with freighters in the 1900s, such as this one photographed in 1912 near Williston, North Dakota.
NARA/Wikimedia Commons

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7. Graduation day in the 1930s at a North Dakota school.
nonasuch/Flickr
8. This is a "stereo-image" that was meant to be seen in a viewfinder, giving the appearance of a 3D image. The photo was taken near Bismarck in the first few years of the 1900s.
New York Public Library/Wikimedia Commons
9. A street photo from Kensal, North Dakota in the early 1900s. Residents of the town are seen standing around with dogs and children in a wagon.
Wikimedia Commons
10. A tractor pulling a road grader on a family farm in North Dakota, taken in 1918.
Wikimedia Commons
11. A group of ladies in Napoleon, North Dakota, displaying some of the fashion at the time.
nonasuch/Flickr
12. A horse and a car meeting on a road, as horses were beginning to be phased out and cars becoming the main source of transport. Photo taken in the early 1930s.
NARA/Wikimedia Commons

What family stories do you have of past generation’s lives that you were reminded of looking at these historic photos of North Dakota? We’re happy to hear them! In the meantime, here are more photographs of North Dakota, this time focusing on photos during the 1930s.

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