DICKINSON

Knudtson Heritage Farm

Established: 1872

Township: Okoboji

Township Acres: 80

Century Farm Award: Given in 2022

Generation: 7th worked from 1996-97 at a startup company that designed electric cars. His wife, Karess (Eichman) Knudtson, who graduated from Okoboji High School in 1993, also began her career on the East Coast. After earning her degree

Knudtson family honors their Heritage Farm, restores native prairie

in environmental science at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, she taught science at a private school in Virginia.

Things changed, however, when Polaris opened up a manufacturing plant in Spirit Lake, complete with a small design/engineering firm. The company hired Cory, and the Knudtsons moved to Milford in 2001. “We knew we wanted to raise our kids in the Midwest, so it was an easy decision to come home to Iowa,” Knudtson said.

A few years after they moved back, Knudtson’s Grandma Geneva was ready to move off the farm, so the young family had the opportunity to move there.

This farm had a lot to offer, from its unique location to its rich history. Knudtson’s great-greatgreat grandparents, Halver and Guro Knudtson, both Norwegian immigrants, purchased the 80-acre Okoboji Township farm in 1872 when Halver was 52 years old. “This is a beautiful place in the

-Submitted photo

WHEN THE KNUDTSON FAMILY hosted a party to honor the 150th anniversary of their Heritage Farm in Dickinson County’s Okoboji Township, more than 200 family members and friends showed up to help them celebrate on June 25, 2022.

Little Sioux River valley,” Knudtson said. “This area was always known for good fishing.”

Vintage photographs of the farm in the late 1800s show the farm near the river, complete with a wooden-frame house, a white barn and a sod-roof shed. “My dad grew

See KNUDTSON, Page 28C

By DOUG CLOUGH

Farm News writer

ESTHERVILLE — For the late Marlys (Quastad) Landmesser, few things meant more to her growing up than her horses on her folks’ farm in the 1940s.

“Mom loved being in the barn with her horses, whether winter, spring, summer, fall — it didn’t matter,” said Marty (Landmesser) Brooks, the eldest of Dave and Marlys Landmesser’s six children.

“She wanted to be out with the horses and her dad, doing all the things that men were supposed to be doing. Girls were not supposed to be in the barn, in the field, or on horses; she was at odds with her mom quite a bit at that time. She was always in trouble because she would escape from the house and work beside her dad. She was very close to her dad and loved him a lot.”

Marlys, when old enough, left the farm, eventually dating Dave Landmesser, a young man from another farm family in the area.