William,
     
    You wrote; "Am intrigued with a  bit of ND History about  
    the arrivial in 1880 of John Sutherland Sinclair, the 17th Earl of Caithness 
    to Lakota ND. from Thurso, Scotland.
     
    You know, I came upon 
    that bit of  curious information about the 17th Earl a couple years ago 
    and have felt that there might be a real story there. Thanks for bringing it 
    up again. Could ND be more enticing than Caithness?  Couldn't be in the 
    winter.  I think that I remember that during the early 1880's there 
    were mild winters and wet enough summers that NE and I suppose the Dakotas 
    looked pretty good to people.  I had a lot of people leave WI for NE 
    then.
        But 
    then came some horrible winters when the ranchers were wiped out.  
    Again PBS has given us a series about the west that told about that.  I 
    remember the piles of frozen carcasses.
        Did the Earl 
    remain?  Are there descendant of his out there?  Here again we are 
    back to ND as was Rollo's statue.  Did the Earl's descendants take part 
    in the ND commemorative events in 1912?  What was the status of the 
    Earldom?
    Laurel
     
     
     Wm. St. Clair