Few chapters in the region's history run as deep as the great farmer revolt of the early twentieth century. Convinced that distant banks, railroads and grain buyers were bleeding them dry, the plains farmers organized into a political movement of astonishing reach — the Nonpartisan League — and set out to take control of their own economic destiny through the ballot box rather than the barricade.

When the Farmers Seized the Ballot

The movement swept the state with remarkable speed, electing its candidates and enacting a startling program aimed at freeing the farmer from outside control. Its most lasting monuments are institutions still operating today: a state-owned bank to keep the region's capital at home, and a state-owned flour mill and elevator to give growers an alternative to the private grain trade they distrusted.

From the almanac's reckoning:

• Plains farmers organized against distant banks, railroads and grain buyers.
• The movement built a state-owned bank and a state-owned flour mill.
• Both institutions, unique in the nation, still operate today.

The League's fervor eventually cooled and its coalition fractured, but the institutions it built endured, unique in the nation and woven permanently into the state's character. The almanac counts the prairie revolt among the most consequential episodes in the region's history — the time the farmers seized the ballot and remade their state.