North Dakota's ONLY Riot Was Less Than 100 Miles From Bismarck

This one is hard to believe - when I first heard about it yesterday I became fascinated

I never would have imagined that a RIOT could have happened in such a small town, just goes to show you, I guess, that when a semi-large amount of people get together determined to "Let loose and have a good time" anything can happen. Of course, the usual common thread to an unruly crowd is alcohol. That's what happened back in 1969.

May 9th through the 11th - 1969 - the anniversary dates for North Dakota's ONLY Riot

So the history of this mayhem all began when an editor of a small college newspaper out of North Dakota State released an article all about his idea of heading over to a super small town named Zap for spring break ( he couldn't afford to travel to Fort Lauderdale ) - about 86 miles away from Bismarck - with a population count of fewer than 300 residents, This tiny town was about to be visited by 3,000 plus college kids - here is the deal, the story that was in the school newspaper got picked up by the associated press - which immediately made Zap the place to be.

Zip to Zap - what happens when a town runs out of beer?

Well, the National Guard gets called in, according to wikipedia.org "The amiable revelry began early with an all-night party in the streets outside an overwhelmed small bar. When the mayor finally exited the bar in the middle of the night and discovered a bonfire on main street and realized the size of the crowd in his tiny town, he panicked and called the governor" There were no serious injuries reported, by the time the National Guard pulled in, most of the kids had split. Zap only had a few places that had alcohol, and they ran out of that fairly quickly - hence the rowdy reactions. Some reports of a fire that was started ( to keep people warm ) and North Dakota State paid for most of the damages.

So then what caused many to be so angry?

The town of Zap had heard that "there was a party heading their way" - some things never change, and businesses decided to charge just a tad more - for like the cost of beer for instance - one man remarked "We came to Zap for a good time, everyone went crazy - they upped the prices of beer to 50 cents..." - Well listen now I get it...