From this beginning, a Ceramics Department was founded at the University and a talented potter, Margaret Kelly Cable, was hired as its director. The university trained many of the people later involved in other pottery ventures within the state. These include Charles Grantier who worked at Dickinson Clay Products Company (Dickota) and later served as state director of the WPA Ceramics Project. Laura Taylor (Hughes) preceded Charles Grantier as state director at WPA and later became a partner in the Wahpeton Pottery Company (Rosemeade) which operated from 1940 until 1961. The WPA project was active first in Dickinson, North Dakota and then in Mandan, North Dakota from 1936 until 1942.