Seventy-five years ago, the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) did not begin as a polished institution with international reach. It began as a necessity. At the turn of the twentieth century, the state sat atop vast reserves of lignite coal—abundant and locally available but difficult to transport or use efficiently. Agriculture dominated the economy, leaving the state vulnerable to weather cycles, market swings, and fuel shortages. In that tension, the foundation of what would become the EERC was laid.
Science as Public Service
From the earliest years of the University of North Dakota (UND), lignite was never imagined as a driver of innovation, but rather a necessary fuel to “keep the lights on” for the state. By the 1890s, UND faculty were already treating the university as a testing ground for the state itself. Early geologists and engineers investigated lignite, clay, groundwater, oil, and natural gas not out of academic curiosity, but because North Dakota needed answers. Could lignite heat homes reliably? Could it power industry? Could water be conserved before it was squandered? Could new resources diversify an economy dangerously dependent on agriculture?
Central to this effort was Earle J. Babcock, who joined UND in 1889 and soon began systematic studies of lignite and clay deposits. By 1901, his first report as state geologist summarized a decade of research and documented the scale and potential of North Dakota’s lignite resources. His laboratory functioned as the state’s de facto testing facility, despite limited funding. The School of Mines, formally opened in 1897 with Babcock as director, received no initial appropriation, leaving faculty to contribute their time, equipment, and personal resources to sustain the work.
Field research followed the same pattern. Geological and irrigation studies in western North Dakota were frequently conducted under austere conditions, including travel by bicycle—even in the winter months. These efforts reflected a broader belief that applied science, however underfunded, could help stabilize the state’s economy and reduce its dependence on a single industry.
Lignite at the Center of the Storm
Lignite however, was the resource North Dakota could not ignore. Researchers explored multiple pathways to make it more useful: briquetting lignite into a denser, more transportable fuel; gasifying it for industrial processes; pairing lignite with local clay deposits to support brick manufacturing; and using it to generate electricity near the mine site.
The importance of lignite became especially clear during World War I and its aftermath, when labor disputes and national coal strikes threatened fuel supplies across the country. In North Dakota, where lignite deteriorated quickly and could not be stockpiled, winter heating needs made fuel availability an immediate public concern. In November 1919, following a breakdown in negotiations between mine operators and the United Mine Workers, Governor Lynn J. Frazier placed the state’s lignite mines under state control to keep production moving. He declared martial law and deployed a military force of a whopping thirteen men. National press attention followed, including the arrival of a filmmaker expecting to document a large-scale military confrontation. Finding little visible activity, the filmmaker staged a brief riot scene before leaving the state.
Legal challenges followed, but federal courts upheld the governor’s actions, affirming that the public’s access to heat and power outweighed competing private interests. The strike ended later that winter with miners returning to work under negotiated terms, reinforcing the link between energy supply, public welfare, and state responsibility.
Boom, Bust, and Adaptation
The interwar years brought both expansion and contraction. Lignite production surged when out-of-state coal supplies were disrupted, and then it declined as competition from natural gas and fuel oil increased. Mines opened and closed, and communities experienced the resulting economic cycles.
Through it all, UND researchers adapted. When briquetting proved insufficient, they pivoted. When industrial uses faltered, they turned to power generation. When water quality was threatened in Grand Forks, they developed activated carbon from lignite to purify drinking water. During the Great Depression, federal relief programs funded research infrastructure and technical work at UND, strengthening the university’s long-term research capacity.
This period cemented another enduring theme: coordination. State agencies, federal partners, and university researchers learned that collaboration multiplied impact. Federal grants improved facilities, expanded research staff, and contributed to the accreditation of UND’s College of Engineering. By the late 1930s, lignite had become increasingly linked to regional power generation, even as natural gas and fuel oil reduced its role as a direct heating fuel.
From State Need to National Mission
World War II shifted the scale and scope of lignite research. As steel shortages threatened the war effort, attention turned to North Dakota lignite as a chemical raw material, not merely a fuel. Researchers explored whether lignite-derived gases could be used to convert iron ore, produce synthetic fuels, and supply industrial feedstocks.
Joint efforts between North Dakota and Minnesota, supported by congressional appropriations, funded pilot plants for lignite drying and gasification on the UND campus. By the mid-1940s, experimental operations were underway, reflecting a transition from state-focused problem-solving to research with national implications.
In 1948, Congress authorized the establishment of a national lignite research laboratory at UND. The authorization included funding for construction and ongoing operations, formalizing decades of incremental research and collaboration. The laboratory opened on land provided by the university, with facilities designed to integrate into the campus and support long-term research programs.
Construction of the Charles R. Robertson Lignite Research Laboratory was completed in 1951, and later that year the facility was formally dedicated by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in a ceremony that underscored its national importance. The dedication brought federal, state, and university leaders together on the UND campus to celebrate the laboratory’s readiness to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in low-rank coal utilization. Designed to house advanced experimental equipment and staffed by interdisciplinary researchers, the laboratory’s purpose was clear: to expand scientific understanding of lignite’s potential as both an industrial feedstock and an energy resource, and to serve as a hub for ongoing collaboration between government and academia on fuel technology research.
A Legacy That Endures
The EERC that exists today differs in scale and scope from its early predecessors, but its foundations remain recognizable. Its origins reflect a sustained commitment to applied research, public service, and collaboration across institutional boundaries. From early lignite surveys and bicycle-based fieldwork to federally supported pilot plants and national laboratories, the EERC grew in response to changing needs and opportunities. Seventy-five years after its formal establishment, the EERC’s history is not defined by a single breakthrough but by continuity. It is the story of a state and a university that invested in knowledge as a practical tool—one that evolved alongside North Dakota’s energy, environmental, and economic challenges and continues to do so today.
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