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National Bank Notes > North Dakota

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Walhalla, First NB, W9133
Fr. 652 $20 1902PB
Grade: PMG Ch. VF 35 EPQ    

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Here is a lovely note from Pembina County and this one-bank town. The bank was organized on March 14, 1908 and issued 7,765 sheets of Blue Seals before switching to small size. This note must be the finest known with its great color, body and well stamped signatures of C.W. Anderson, Vice President and L.F. Le Page, Cashier. There are just nine large notes reported on the bank. The note was purchased from Hickman-Oakes. Walhalla is located in Pembina County on the banks of the Pembina River, five miles from the border with Canada. The population was 996 at the 2010 census, with a peak population of 1,471 reached in 1970. Walhalla was established in 1845, making it the second oldest town in North Dakota, its history bound up in the fur trade of the Red River Valley. One mile northeast of town is the North West Company fur trading post, established in 1797 by David Thompson, which in 1801 moved to a site one mile east of Walhalla, where a reconstructed building is now located. The oldest building in North Dakota is located in Walhalla. The Kittson Trading Post was established by Norman Kittson, an American Fur Company agent, in 1843 and is located in the Walhalla State Historical Park. Another trading post, located northeast of Walhalla, was established by Antoine Gingras as early as 1844. Gingras worked with Kittson in establishing Walhalla as a major trading area at that early period of North Dakota's history. Father Belcourt is credited with establishing the City of Walhalla in 1845. Father Belcourt moved his church school from Pembina to Walhalla due to severe flooding in Pembina; he named the site St. Joseph. St. Joseph served as a temporary county seat of Kittson County, Walsh, Pembina and parts of Cavalier County, when the first division of counties was made by in 1862. The name was changed to Walhalla on July 21, 1871 when George W. Reed was Postmaster. The name is an Anglicized version of Valhalla, the home of the gods in Norse mythology. Development of Walhalla continued with the arrival of farmers and railroad in the 1880s. The Great Northern Railroad extended its branch line from Grafton to this point in 1898.

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