The theme for the 19th annual Governor's Conference on North Dakota History will be the impact of the railroad on North Dakota and the region. "Lincoln Legacy: The Railroad," featuring a variety of programs and presentations, will take place Nov. 2-3 at the Heritage Center in Bismarck.

Three workshops will be offered Nov. 2. To register for the workshops or other parts of the program, call State Historical Society of North Dakota administrative assistant Kiri Stone at 328-2799 or e-mail kstone@;nd.gov. The final deadline for all signups is Oct. 26. The workshops are: "Disaster Response: The Critical First 48 Hours," "Using Railroad Records at the Minnesota Historical Society," and "The Railroads: Bedrock of Bismarck - A Guided Tour."

All meals during the conference will be prepared from a menu of foods served in the Northern Pacific Railroad's Northcoast Limited Dining Car in 1964. Lunch on Nov. 2 will be served at noon. The annual meeting of the SHSND Foundation also will be held during the lunch, beginning at 12:30 p.m.

At 2:30 p.m., Nov. 2 there will be a ribbon cutting for the addition to the SHSND's archives area of the Heritage Center. This 30,000-square-foot addition provides additional space for the State Archives, reducing the need for more off-site storage facilities. The $5.7 million addition was funded through a $5.5 million bond approved by the 2005 Legislature, and a $200,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation.

Also on Nov. 2, a social hour will follow the train tour at 5 p.m., and will include book signings. The banquet, with awards and presentations, will begin at 6 p.m.

The day's events for Nov. 3 will begin with a brochure swap at 8 a.m. that continues until 3 p.m. Participants are encouraged to bring their brochures to exchange with others in attendance.

November 3 programs, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., will feature several speakers and entertainment centered on the railroad theme. People can sign up to attend only the Saturday programs. The 50-minute programs are scheduled as follows:

n 9 a.m. - Don Hofsommer will present "Railroads and Dakota Colonization," about the dreamers and schemers who developed plans to populate service areas with productive people, who in turn would need goods and services from the railroads. A professor of history at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, Hofsommer has authored several books on railroad history, including "The Southern Pacific and the Great Northern Railway," "Minneapolis and the Age of Railways," "The Tootin' Louie," and "The Hook and Eye."

n 10 a.m. - Greg Gagnon will present "Northern Juggernaut: Indians, Railroads and Colonialism in North Dakota," which will emphasize the American Indian responses to and the impacts of the railroads in Indian country. An associate professor of Indian studies at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, Gagnon is the author of "An Indian Chapbook" and "Pine Ridge Reservation: Yesterday and Today."

n 11 a.m., Frank Vyzralek will talk about "The Railroad Depot in North Dakota," about the days when railroads were the primary means of transporting passengers and freight in the United States and the local railroad station - or depot - constituted each company's office in every community which it served. Vyzralek is an independent historical researcher with his own company, Great Plains Research of Bismarck, and a former state archivist with the SHSND.

Lunch will be served from noon to 12:30 p.m., followed by a session by the Old Five 'N Dimers from Mandan, singing and relaying the history of songs of the railroad, from 12:30 to 1:20 p.m. Kelly Kiemele and Les Vaagen will perform a variety of railroad and train songs, along with background information about the songs' origins, on guitar and banjo with vocals.

n 1:30 p.m. -Robert Larson will present "Gall, Jay Cooke and the Northern Pacific Railroad," about the opposition of Gall and other Lakota Sioux warriors to the survey and construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad through the Yellowstone country of then-Montana Territory. His talk will focus on the contrast and conflict between Gall, Sitting Bull's chief lieutenant, and Jay Cooke, the chief financier of the Northern Pacific, and Cooke's proxies, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and Col. David S. Stanley, and their commands during the Yellowstone Expeditions of 1872 and 1873. An emeritus professor of history at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Larson is the author of "Gall: Lakota War Chief "and "Red Cloud: Warrior-Statesman of the Lakota Sioux."

n 2:30 p.m. - Concluding the presentations will be Carroll Engelhardt, an emeritus professor of history at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. He will discuss "Railroads and the Birth of Fargo and Moorhead."

For more information about the history conference, visit the SHSND's Web site at http://www.nd.gov/hist or call SHSND curator of education Marilyn Snyder at 701-328-2792 or e-mail msnyder@;nd.gov. To register for any of the workshops, programs and other offerings, call SHSND administrative assistant Kiri Stone at 701-328-2799 or e-mail kstone@;nd.gov.