In 1888, at the age of 16, Alta May Wyman married Robert Thompson in the community of Holmes in Dakota Territory. She made a beautiful red and white Ocean Waves quilt for her baby Lawrence who was born in 1889, the same year Dakota Territory became the states of North and South Dakota. This is the only quilt which could be definitely dated to the year of the state’s centennial.

This story was preserved as part of the North Dakota Quilt Project