The Dakota homestead "serves as a reference for those doing family research of the Bismarck/Mandan, North Dakota area as well as general information for all genealogists" (web site).

"Articles were abstracted primarily from pages 3 and 4, which generally carried local news, vital record information, obituaries, and human interest stories. Legal notices . . . are not included but did appear regularly in each issue"--Foreword.

Includes a family biography chapter of families that have had a continuous record of residence prior to and including 1918.

The compiler has divided the material literally as the "Good" (happy news), "Bad" (mainly deaths) & the "Ugly" (black sheep news).