Back Then with Tracy Briggs

Rumors have circulated for 100 years that Capone was a Minnesota lake lover and friend to the owner of East Grand Forks "Whiteys" bar. But is it fact or fiction? Read more from Tracy Briggs at https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs

Stella Hildre was only a teenager when the gun-toting gangsters "in fine clothes" asked her to lock the doors of her family's cafe and serve them dinner. It became a night she'd never forget. Read more from Tracy Briggs here: https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs.

Sometimes called "the white sheep" of the family, what would make Vincenzo Capone choose to fight the booze trade that was making his little brother Al the most powerful gangster in the world? For more from Tracy Briggs, visit: https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs

Did you once have an item of clothing that made you feel like a million bucks? Where did it go? And why the heck did you get rid of it? See more from Tracy Briggs at https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs

The Probstfield name is well known in Moorhead. Now a new book digs deeper into the lives of Catherine Probstfield and her 'difficult' husband Randolph. Read more from Tracy Briggs at https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs.

On Valentine's Day 1942, the war was less than three months old, but children were already in the fight. Read this and more from Tracy Briggs at inforum.com/tracy-briggs .

Fred Fancher also survived North Dakota's deadliest blizzard, wrote the state constitution, and became a multimillionaire businessman. Check out more stories from Tracy Briggs at https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs

Esther Allen, 88, died Dec. 18, 2022 in Moorhead after a long battle with Alzheimer's. She paved the way for generations of women, including me.

A former Fargo woman said her pilot father once brought the great aviator home for supper and a night of incredible stories.

Officials called it "the most baffling and mysterious fire cases" in the state's history. Who or what was responsible?

Marion Ross' first time in the spotlight was as a 13-year-old heroine in Albert Lea.

The Bachelors and Benedicts Dance Club formed in Fargo in 1898, in part, to help single men find women to marry. Then the traitors were invited.

After a meltdown for the ages, columnist Tracy Briggs shares that she took her husband's advice to decrease Christmas stress and carried it out with help from an old Sicilian friend.

It was an almost impenetrable copper box inside a cornerstone of Trinity Lutheran Church. Members learned it was a time capsule with surprises from the past, but what did the past want to share?

The Forum set out to answer an intriguing question: What are the oldest restaurants in the Fargo-Moorhead area that still exist today? You might be surprised at what we learned.

John Denver spent a lot of time in the upper Midwest touring and living here. Some readers shared memories of their 'brushes with his greatness' after a recent column and podcast by Tracy Briggs.

The genealogy site MyHeritage has introduced a new feature that lets you (or photos of you) time travel to different decades. Hear which time period WDAY anchors Kealy and Mogck and Forum writers Tracy Briggs, Tammy Swift, John Lamb and Jeff Kolpack all belong.

As the Fargo Theatre welcomes a John Denver tribute show Dec. 3, a look back at the Minnesotan who inspired more than one of his songs and how the state's cold spring inspired another.

Master Sgt. Chester Ovnand was born in Thief River Falls and also spent part of his childhood in Adams, North Dakota. He was assigned to an eight-man American Military Assistance Advisory Group sent to train South Vietnamese troops. He was stationed at a base camp in Bien Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon, where trouble was brewing.

Beverly Hanson, a 1941 Fargo Central High graduate, was the first-ever winner of the LPGA Championship and had a hugely successful career in golf. So why isn't she better known? To read more and see photos, find this story here at inforum.com.

Fourteen people, including prominent CEO's and politicians, died on Oct. 30, 1941 when a Northwest Airlines plane crashed just outside the city. Only the pilot lived to tell the horrific story.

The Forum archives are full of hundreds of stories about Halloween celebrations, struggles and shenanigans. Here are 5 that might make you smile. 🎃

North Dakota native Clifford Thompson, was believed to be the tallest man in the world from 1940 to 1955.

InForum recently published a story on student journalists at MSUM rocking the boat in 1971, but equally big storms were brewing at other FM campuses.

As Minnesota State University Moorhead celebrates more than 50 years of The Advocate, a look back at its predecessor that ruffled more than a few feathers.