“It has been my observation that research at branch stations attracts a special kind of person – part time farmer, part time livestockman, part time mechanic, part time extension specialist, part time public relations man, and full time agricultural scientist.”
This quote by T. J. Conlon, Superintendent at the Dickinson Station (1969-1991) gives a clear picture of the people who worked at developing the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station System.
The outlying stations were part of the NDSU Agricultural Experiment Station and were referred to as substations until 1940 when their names were changed to branch stations and then in 1989 to research centers and finally research extension centers. The first substation was established near Edgely, ND in 1901 followed soon after by stations at Dickinson, Hettinger Williston, Langdon and a few years later in