CONTENTS
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR This is the third annual edition of Centennial Farms & Ranches of North Dakota, a magazine celebrating the historic homesteads of this state and the stories and photos about those families whose ancestors settled here many years ago to establish farms and ranches, many still operating today. North Dakota is rich in stories about these farms and ranches on the wide open prairie and in the rugged Badlands. Some farms and ranches have passed on to other families and friends but remain part of this state’s rich history and culture. Many people have contributed to the production of this edition of the magazine. In particular, we would like to thank the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, North Dakota Centennial Farm Program Marilyn Hudson, State Historical Society of North Dakota and the State Archives in the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum and North Dakota Stockmen’s Association. We would also like to thank those who shared their stories and photos with us. We welcome your stories and photos about historic farms and ranches. Please read below how you can participate in Centennial Farms & Ranches of North Dakota. If you have comments or suggestions about the magazine, we’d like to hear from you. Comments or suggestions can be sent to eogden@minotdailynews.com. We hope you enjoy the 2018-2019 edition of Centennial Farms & Ranches of North Dakota.
– Eloise Ogden
SEND YOUR HISTORICAL FARM OR RANCH STORIES, PHOTOS
Is your farm or ranch in northwest or north central North Dakota 50 years old or more? If so, please send us a story about your farm or ranch along with photos (not less than 200 resolution). Email is preferred. Please send your information and photos to eogden@minotdailynews.com as soon as possible. Be sure to include your name, city and a daytime phone number. Your farm or ranch may be selected for the next edition of the Centennial Farms & Ranches of North Dakota magazine. Suggestions for stories on historic homesteads in northwest and north central are also accepted.
FARMS
12 17 20 22
HOWERY FARM PAUL FARM BIRDSALL FARM ANDERSON FARM
4 8 24
OLSON RANCH KEOGH RANCH LONG X RANCH
16
ND COWBOY HALL OF FAME BRANDING IN ND FORT BERTHOLD LIVESTOCK ASSOCIATION
26 28
RANCHES
EXTRAS
~COVER PHOTO~
Photo by Eloise Ogden of MInot Daily News Barns are part of North Dakota’s history but many historic barns have disappeared for various reasons including due to time and weather crumbling them, others farmers and ranchers have razed them to build modern ones. Many historic barns are landmarks and families look to them as links to their past. This barn is in the Minot area.
CENTENNIAL FARMS & RANCHES OF NORTH DAKOTA 2018-19
PUBLISHER • DAN MCDONALD
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR • ELOISE OGDEN
EDITOR • MICHAEL SASSER
ART DIRECTOR • MANDY TANIGUCHI
DMCDONALD@MINOTDAILYNEWS.COM MSASSER@MINOTDAILYNEWS.COM
AD DIRECTOR • JIM HART JHART@MINOTDAILYNEWS.COM
EOGDEN@MINOTDAILYNEWS.COM
MTANIGUCHI@MINOTDAILYNEWS.COM
A PUBLICATION OF MINOT DAILY NEWS AND THE PIERCE COUNTY TRIBUNE.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS JILL SCHRAMM • SUE SITTER • SHYANNE BELZER
MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 3
OLSON RANCH “ You take care of the ranch, and the ranch will take care of you!
“
– Gordon L. Olson
4 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
HONORING EARLY PIONEER GENERATIONS FOR THEIR WORK Ole T. Olson came from Ridgeway, Iowa, to North Dakota seeking land. He looked for three requirements to build the foundation of a successful cattle ranch: coulees to protect cattle from the elements, good grazing and a spring to provide water. Continued on Page 6
Submitted Photo
MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 5
Submitted Photo
Gordon L. Olson looks over some of his cattle herd at the home place. In 1897, Ole’s search ended in the beautiful Badlands of western North Dakota, where he squatted on 160 acres of land not yet surveyed into townships. The site is southeast of present-day Watford City. He began building a 15-by-15-foot log house and a cattle shed with his wagon and team of horses, repeatedly making the fivemile trip to the Little Missouri, where he cut trees and hauled logs to the site. Always looking for opportunities to grow and improve, the next few years brought the ranch holdings to include three more sections in Dunn and
McKenzie counties. By 1912, Ole was shipping Hereford steers to the National Livestock Commission Co. in Chicago, Illinois. On Sept. 16, 1912, Olson’s Hereford steers, averaging 1,380 pounds, brought $9.60 per cwt. His cattle “topped the market” by being the only ones to bring that price on that date and sold higher than any carload lots of rangeland cattle ever sold before on the open market. Ole’s son, Gordon L., was born in 1902. He grew up working alongside his dad, raising quality cattle and a herd of ranch horses. Submitted Photo
Ole T. Olson and his wife, Ora, are shown in this photo. Ole T. Olson squatted on 160 acres of land in 1897 and established the Olson Ranch, later adding more land.
6 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
Submitted Photo
The bunkhouse on the Olson Ranch became the school for Ole T. and Ora Olson’s children. Ole Olson hired the teacher. When more homesteaders arrived in the area, then Dunn County hired the teacher and the other children joined the Olson children at the school. ABOVE: This photo shows branding in the early 1900s on the Olson Ranch. LEFT: Gordon L. Olson, left, and his father, Ole T. Olson are shown in St. Paul, Minn., where they had shipped cattle by train. The photo was taken by a sidewalk photographer who apparently was fascinated by seeing cowboys in St. Paul. RIGHT: After many days of rounding up their cattle and trailing the herd to Killdeer, the cowboys are enjoying some grub at the chuck wagon before the cattle are loaded on the cattle train to St. Paul, Minn., to be sold. Photo by Leo Harris, the late cowboy photographer. Submitted Photos
Ole wanted his and Ora’s children to have a good education so he hired a teacher for Gordon and his two sisters, Bessie and Florence. The bunkhouse on the Olson Ranch became the school. When more homesteaders arrived, Dunn County hired the teacher but school was still held in the ranch bunkhouse until about 1935. When Ole retired in the early 1950s, Gordon took over full ranch operation. Like his dad, Gordon made continual improvements; drilling more water wells, building dams, repairing fences, and making sure each blade of prairie hay was cut to be prepared for both good and lean years. He looked forward to the spring and fall round-ups, readying the chuck wagon for the hired cook. He took pleasure in branding and working together with other ranchers. Gordon and his wife, Inga, had two daughters: Hazel and Joyce.
Retiring in the 1960s, Gordon kept busy maintaining the 50 miles of fence around the ranch, always enjoying the beauty of the Badlands. Hazel and her husband, Kelly Jorgenson, transitioned from living and working on the ranch to taking on the complete operation and continual improvements. Since Kelly passed away in 2013, Hazel continues with ranch management, sharing her knowledge and wisdom of ranching where she has lived all of her life. Joyce and her husband, Don Anderson, live in Minot. The Olson Ranch has remained in operation for over 120 years, with this family’s fourth generation at the helm today. The ranch was inducted in the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame’s Modern-Era Rodeo category in 2018. – Information from North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame
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MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 7
Historic
Keogh Ranch
founded in 1899 in Keene area
This photo was taken on the Keogh Ranch in the Keene area in 1978. Minot Daily News File Photo
Frank P. Keogh Submitted Photo
Brooks Keogh Submitted Photo
Frank P. Keogh and his brother, Jack, struck out on their own in 1901, ending their search in McKenzie County near Keene where they started their own ranch. In 1905, when James Phelan took over Webb Arnett’s leasing operation on 225,000 acres of Fort Berthold Indian Reservation rangeland, Frank was sought as an experienced cattleman to head the operation. He became the ranch foreman, running up to 10,000 head of cattle and 1,000 head of horses. When Phelan’s lease ran out in 1910, Frank bought out his brother’s interest in their jointly-owned operation and remained on that ranch, at the southern foot of Table Butte, for the rest of his career. His ranch included about 20,000 acres of reservation land, where he ran about 800 head of cattle, plus the 100 head of horses he ran on his own land. Frank Keogh was born on July 18, 1877, in Benson, Minnesota, one of several children of Patrick and Catherine (Keliher) Keogh. The family moved west in 1882 when Patrick was transferred with the Northern Pacific Railroad to present-day Hebron. The family later started ranching op-
8 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
erations on the Little Knife River. In 1912, Frank married Elizabeth (Lillian) Carney, who was a teacher and the postmistress for White Earth. They had two children – Brooks who stayed on the ranch until his death and Betty who married Ed Grantier of Minot. Frank was a founder and president of the McKenzie County Grazing Association, a founder and president of the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association and a member of the executive committee of the American National Livestock Association. He placed a high value on education and helped establish the first school in the area, known as the Keogh School. He also contributed to the Home on the Range at Sentinel Butte and worked with the Department of the Interior to write soil conservation legislation. Though modest, Frank’s impact on western North Dakota was truly significant. He witnessed the changes in ranching from the wide open range to the modern, closely run and managed commercial ranch of today. Brooks Keogh owned and operated the historic Keogh Ranch until his death on July 31, 1984.
Continued on Page 10
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Chuck wagons & cook cars Early day versions of food trucks
By ELOISE OGDEN
Photo by Eloise Ogden
This wooden chuck wagon is displayed in the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck. Chuck wagons carried supplies for cooking and eating. This chuck wagon was made by a lumber company in Dickinson in 1907 and ordered by Frank Keogh, then foreman of the J.E. Phelan Cattle Co.
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Early day chuck wagons carried supplies for cooking and eating for cowboys on a roundup or branding. Another version of these vehicles is the cook car to provide food to threshing crews moving from farm to farm harvesting crops. A wooden chuck wagon displayed in the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck was made by the Walton Davis Lumber Company of Dickinson in 1907 for the J.E. Phelan Cattle Company and ordered by Frank Keogh, Phelan Cattle Co. foreman. “What is the modern counterpart of a chuck wagon?” asked Mark J. Halvorson, curator of Collections Research for the State Historical Society of North Dakota in Bismarck. “The food trucks in the Williston oil patch. It’s the same principle,” he answered. These vehicles are a modern-day way to quickly provide food to workers in the field. He said that same food truck in the oil field might also pull up to a farm and cater at a farm or household auction. According to State Historical Society of North Dakota information about the chuck wagon on display: When the Phelan Cattle Company went out of business Frank Keogh purchased all the company equipment (including mess box and dishes) and 85 saddle horses. The chuck wagon also was used in the parade at the Sanish Rodeo from 1946-1953. In a letter from Brooks Keogh of Keene, on May 3, 1954, to Russell Reid, superintendent of the State Historical Society, he said, “I have talked to my Father, Frank Keogh, and he tells me that he would be glad to give the one here at the ranch.” The chuck wagon went to the State Historical Society for display. The chuck wagon has a wood box, wood axles, steel-tiered wheels of twopiece felloe construction, and wood hubs. The felloe is the outer rim of a wheel, supported by the spokes. It has an elevated seat and back storage cabinet. The sides of the wagon have been branded with numerous different signs and symbols. A pair of “T” ’s have been painted on both side of the back storage cabinet. There is a back wooden plank that folds down from the front of the cabinet to form a table. The interior of the cabinet contains several drawers and shelves. There is a “T”-shaped bracket with the wagon that holds up the door when the cabinet is opened. Various kitchen utensils and wagons parts were found within the interior of the wagon. The chuck wagon can be seen in the N.D. Heritage Center & State Museum’s Inspiration Gallery: Yesterday and Today. Continued From Page 8
Brooks James Keogh was born Aug. 4, 1914, at Williston, the son of Frank and Elizabeth (Carney) Keogh. He grew up near Keene on the Keogh Ranch founded by his father and uncle in 1899. He attended rural schools, Williston High School and the College of St. Thomas in Minnesota, graduating in 1938. Brooks worked for a Montana oil company before entering the U.S. Marine Corps in 1944. After the war, he started a Hereford cattle partnership with his father and began a Quarter horse breeding program. He married Kathleen “Kay” Hyland in 1944, and they had three children. Kay died in 1970. He married Elizabeth Coughlin in 1972. Brooks was a founder and the only president of the Sanish Rodeo Association, North Dakota Stockmen’s Association president in 1954-1956 and American National Cattlemen’s Association president in 1964-1966. He was a National Livestock Producers board member, an original trustee of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and active in the McKenzie County Grazing Association. Brooks was honored as the NDSU Saddle & Sirloin Club’s Agriculturalist of the Year in 1966, inducted into the N.D. Agriculture Hall of Fame and received the NDSA Top Hand Award in 1982. The Greater North Dakotan Award recognized his lifelong service to industry, friends, state and country in 1983. Frank Keogh was inducted in the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in the Pre-1940s Ranching category in 1999. Brooks Keogh was inducted in the N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame in the Modern-Era Ranching category in 2003. – Information from North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame
10 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
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The Howery Farm
An celebrates ce year in sam
Submitted Photo This July 2013 shows how the Howery-Jorgensen farm looks today with the original 1916 farm home and restored 1909 barn.
12 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
nt l e r f a r m entennial me family
By JILL SCHRAMM
In 1916 when Frank and Harriet Howery settled on a farm near Antler, they couldn’t have foreseen that family members to the fourth and fifth generations would be carrying on what they started. The Howery Farm, located about two miles northwest of Antler, near the Canadian border in Bottineau County, gained recognition as a centennial farm on April 10, 2016. Continued on Page 6 MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 13
Continued From Page 13
Mark Jorgensen, who lives in the house built by his great-grandparents in 1916, said a 100th anniversary celebration was held in the summer of 2016. “Family and history mean a lot to a lot of people. It’s kind of cool when I think I live in a house that my great-grandparents built,” Jorgensen said. Jorgensen, who moved to the then vacant farmhouse in 1996, has made many improvements to the house and restored the barn with help from his parents, Reed and Beth, and brother, Brian. “In 2005, I had a new steel roof put on the barn. In 2009, I decided to re-side it and fix the foundation,” he said. “After I had the barn completed and painted and everything, I happened to see a video from my mom’s cousin, where my grandfather talked about the barn.” According to his grandfather, the barn was built in 1909, indicating the barn was 100 years old when renovated. Originally built with fieldstone in the foundation, the barn looks somewhat different with a new foundation and roof, but its style hasn’t changed in 100 years. It is used for storage. The barn had come with the purchase when the Howerys bought the former Dan Manning farm from Michael Manning and the State Bank of Antler. Although the 320 acres continues in family hands, only 160 acres is included in the centennial designation as meeting the requirement that family either live on or actively farm the land. Not only does Jorgensen live on the property, but his cousins, Wade and Greg Feland, have farmed the land since 2003. Wade’s son, Jantz, and Greg’s daughter, Kelci, are now the fifth generation involved in the farm operation. According to family history, Frank Howery was born in Wisconsin in 1870 and moved with his family to the Salem, S.D., area. In 1895, he married Harriet Ballance, who was born in 1877 in Ontario and moved with her parents to Salem. They farmed in the Salem area until 1901, when they, with their two small daughters, homesteaded in Antler Township. Antler was founded in 1905. The homestead property no longer is in the family. After purchasing the Manning place, Frank farmed until his death in 1956. Harriet died in 1958. The Howerys had five children: Stella, Lila, Rae, George and Cecil. Cecil was born in 1909. He and his wife, Irene, bought the family farm in 1948 and farmed until 1967. They received the 1956 Soil Conservation Award and were the first in the district to join the Great Plains Conservation Plan. They moved to Minot in 1992, and Cecil died later that year. Irene died in 1994. They had four children: Beth, Albert, Connie and Charles. The Howery farm passed on to Beth and her husband, Reed Jorgensen, in 1994. They had three children: Brian, Dean and Mark. They retired from farming in 2002.
Submitted Photos
ABOVE: The Howery farm shown in this 1956 aerial photo from the Mouse River Soil Conservation District received the district’s conservation award in 1956. LEFT: This 1934 photo of the Howery family includes, back left to right, Cecil, Rae, George, and front, Stella, Frank, Harriet and Lila.
Submitted Photo
This old photo shows members of the Cecil Howery family. In back are Beth and Albert and in front are Cecil, Charles, Connie and Irene.
14 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
The 1909 barn that was on the farm purchased by Frank and Harriet Howery in 1916 was restored in 2009.
Submitted Photo
Mark Jorgensen, who acquired the property from his parents in 2001, said the house had been built from a kit ordered from a catalog, although it wasn’t a common catalog company so he hasn’t been able to track down much about its history. (Later, Jorgensen found through his research that the house kit came from the Gordon-Van Tine catalog.) “At one time, it had an enclosed porch. It was converted into a bedroom,” he said. “A bedroom on the main floor was opened to become part of the kitchen. It was built originally without a bathroom.” A bathroom was added in the 1950s. The farmyard survived flash flooding in 1969 and again in 2014. The house also survived a fire that could have been disastrous. Jorgensen said the house had a Delco battery plant operating off a generator in the basement in use until the late 1940s when the REA (Rural Electrification Association) brought electricity to the farms. His grandfather told of a fire from the generator that was caught early before it could seriously damage the house. Jorgensen said the house was completely rewired in 1997 when he remodeled the kitchen
and bathroom. The house had some historic features in addition to battery-powered electricity. “I found it had a cistern in the basement where they would direct the rain water for use in the house. It had just a hand pump in the kitchen,” Jorgensen said. “What was interesting is I opened up the wall so I could use the cistern area as part of the basement for storage. They had a pyramid stack of bricks, hard and soft.” The hard bricks directed the water and the soft bricks apparently served to soften the water, he said. Not only has the house changed since then, but farming has been transformed in 100 years. The family still grows the grains that the Howerys would be familiar with, but over the years, additional crops have included sunflowers and soybeans, and the farm and farm equipment have grown larger. It’s hard to know what the Howerys would think about air drills and soybeans. Jorgensen can image how they would feel about the family carrying on 100 years later, though. “I think they would be proud,” he said.
MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 15
ND Cowboy Hall of Fame honors Western Heritage & Culture By ELOISE OGDEN
The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame preserves North Dakota’s western lifestyle. That history and culture comes to life at the organization’s Center of Western Heritage & Cultures: Native American, Ranching and Rodeo in Medora. Each year the N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame accepts nominations and inducts those selected as honorees in its Hall of Fame. The deadline for 2019 Hall of Fame nominations is Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018. Any N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame trustee in good standing can submit a nomination. Those not affiliated with the N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame who would like to submit a nomination or have questions can contact a local trustee or the N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame office in Medora at 701-623-2000. There will be a total of six inductees in 2019.
Photo by Eloise Ogden/
The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora includes the Hall of Honorees. The Hall of Honorees features Hall of Fame inductees. The categories are: Western Arts & Entertainment (1); Ranching Pre-1940s (1); Ranching Modern Era (1); Rodeo Pre-1940s (1); and Rodeo Modern Era (2). The nomination form can be downloaded at www.northdakotacowboy.com. Video tutorials and details about the nomination process are available at the website. The N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors will meet in January to determine the 2019 nomination slate. N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame’s 2019 annual meet-
ing will be held Feb. 22-23 in the Ramkota Hotel and Conference Center in Bismarck when presentations on each nominee will be made. Trustees will vote on the nominees by mail-in ballots. Inductees will be announced at a later date and then formally inducted during the annual ceremony held in mid-June in Medora. Rick Thompson is N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame executive director For information about membership in the N.D. Cowboy Hall of Fame, becoming a trustee or other questions call 701-623-2000 or visit its website.
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16 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
Submitted Photo
Paul Farm Established 1908, has come through hard times, good times
By SUE SITTER
Five miles northwest of Rugby, where two gravel roads meet near a stand of evergreens, a sign made from a weathered barn gate announces “Paul Farm, Established 1908” followed by three special wedding dates. Photo by Sue Sitter
Between the rusted hinges on one side and the latch on the other, the dates run in a list, with the oldest on top: Henry and Ella, December 28, 1910; Grace and Cecil, 2/25/1943, and R Jay and Lori, 7/7/2012. Logos from a tractor company and a fuel provider decorate the bottom of the sign and beneath it rests a steel tub, planted with pink and white flowers in spring and summer. R Jay Paul, who lives with his wife, Lori, at the farmstead, sat down recently over coffee and Lori’s homemade Juneberry muffins to share his family’s history, one that echoes many stories of pioneers and their descendants in the area. Although the family’s present-day farm was established in 1908, R Jay explained, the first Pauls to come to Pierce County didn’t originally homestead in that section. Continued on Page 18
MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 17
Continued From Page 17
Submitted Photos
ABOVE: Ella and Henry C. Paul, circa 1910. RIGHT: Cecil and Grace Paul, taken in 1943.
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R Jay’s great-grandfather, Henry Paul, established a claim in 1894, about three miles south of present-day Oppen’s Grove and U.S. 2, near the former site of Zion Lutheran Church. “My great-grandfather, the one living south of Oppen’s Grove, came from Bad Nenndorf, Lower Saxony, Germany,” R Jay said. Henry Paul first made Illinois home, sending for his wife and infant son, Henry C., after establishing a farm there. According to R Jay Paul, Marie Paul traveled alone with her children after Henry had established their new residences. A publication marking the 100th anniversary of Rugby and Pierce Counties titled, “A Century of Area History: Pierce County and Rugby North Dakota” described how Henry Paul “was once lost for two days and nights on the prairie while walking home from Towner and could not sleep because of mosquitoes.” R Jay Paul recalled hearing that story, but not much more, about Henry Paul from his parents. “My dad never even knew (Henry Paul Sr.), because he broke his leg in 1912, and died, and my dad was born in 1914,” R Jay noted. After Henry Paul’s death, the family farm in Ness Township was eventually parceled out to the Paul children and sold to neighbors. However, Henry Paul had left his family in a comfortable situation. “He had probably seven or eight hired men, and a big family (in the house) besides,” R Jay continued. “As a matter of fact, that house – he said, walking to an impressive hardwood sliding door in his home – this door came out of it.” R Jay Paul’s mother, Grace (Rudolph) Paul, remembered Henry Paul’s large home. “It was a four-story house and it had an attic,” she said. Describing the Paul family, she continued, “They were a musical family. Great-Grandma Paul’s brother played the accordion and they had dances up there.” As Henry Paul’s son, Henry C., followed in his father’s footsteps, he acquired land of his own and in 1908, he bought pieces in Walsh Township from his father, who had purchased them in 1906. Henry C. Paul set about building a home on his property in 1908, but he faced an unexpected challenge when construction was completed. He had built the farmhouse too far away from groundwater. When Henry C. and his brother, a well digger located water, they moved the home – no easy task. Next, Henry C. Paul planted his farm’s shelterbelt – another challenge. “The trees – they were all planted by hand,” Lori Paul said. “Dad was always talking about grandpa and him going to the Mouse River getting seedlings. They’ve got ash and elm trees” noted R Jay. “And they planted 10 rows, all around the farm.” R Jay described how his grandfather had hauled the saplings in a horsedrawn stone boat, using the implement to till and plant. “A lot of work went into it,” he said. “They figured out ways to use whatever they had to make things work,” Lori Paul said. Henry C. Paul married Ella Hamilton, a neighbor from Walsh Township. Cecil, who was the second of their three sons, pursued farming. Staying in the farming business presented even more challenges to Cecil Paul. “My dad graduated high school in 1933. He basically cut his teeth in the heart of (the Dust Bowl),” R Jay said. “I could show stuff to you that is old as the hills, but Dad saved it, just in case.”
Submitted Photo
LEFT: Henry C. Paul’s farmhouse, built northwest of Rugby. The home was torn down and a new home built in there in the 1970s.
“The reason was both Mom and Dad – the World War II Generation – they had nothing; they had no money to buy anything and any money they had, they saved.” Cecil married Grace Paul in 1943 and a second generation settled in on the Paul Farm. Cecil stayed on the farm as two of his brothers served in the military. Cecil and Grace had dairy cattle and grew wheat, flax, oats and barley, working the land with plow horses until they bought a tractor a few years later. “They milked cows and tore the old barn down, built this barn and put in a brand new milking parlor, and they milked from 1954 through about 1967 or 1968,” R Jay said. R Jay Paul was the youngest of three brothers. The eldest, Harlan, was born in 1944, Timothy, in 1946 and R Jay in 1962. Harlan passed away from cancer in 1993. “Tim lives in Rugby here with his wife and R Jay lives on the farm,” Grace Paul said of her family. R Jay saw the farm expand to a 2,500-acre operation as he grew and although 100-year-old potato planting equipment from the farm’s beginning stayed in the barn, new features such as an airplane landing strip took up space on the property as the 20th century came to a close. Cecil Paul had taken up flying as a hobby and he enjoyed taking aerial photos of his property. R Jay devotes most of the farmland to crops such as wheat, barley, corn and canola, while some land serves as pasture and hayland. He also runs a corn chopping business to aid neighboring farms with their harvests. The old farmhouse was torn down and replaced in the 1970s. Tim Paul’s wife, Sheila, saved family photos from the old house. As R Jay gradually took over the farm, he experienced some challenges of his own. 1988 brought a drought. Although R Jay said 2018 was dry, he said this year wouldn’t even compare to ’88. After nearly six decades on the Paul Farm, R Jay Paul said he wonders about its future. He has no children. “The Paul Farm will disappear when I die,” R Jay stated, matter-offactly. “I do have a nephew.” Was he interested? “No,” said R Jay. “He’s a computer geek. He’s down in Bismarck.” Did R Jay worry his family farm may be swallowed up by a corporate farm? Lori Paul laughed, “No to corporate farms.” “If I’m lucky enough to live to a ripe old age and I can still pick the person I want to take it over, I will,” R Jay Paul said decisively.
Photo by Sue Sitter
ABOVE: R Jay and Lori Paul stand next to a door from the Paul family’s farmhouse near Oppen’s Grove. The door was handcrafted by Henry Paul, Sr., who filed his homestead claim in 1894.
MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 19
Birdsall Farm Submitted Photo
Birdsall Farm originated with Ed and Alberta Birdsall who moved to the site near Berthold in the early 1900s.
Birdsall brothers heard about good land in Berthold area
Hearing about good farm land in North Dakota, Ed Birdsall and his brother, Curtis Birdsall Sr., headed from South Dakota to the Berthold area. A relative lived about two miles south of Berthold. The first leg of the trip from Roberts County, South Dakota, to Hankinson, was by bicycle, a distance of about 25 miles. At Hankinson they loaded their bicycles on the train and arrived in Minot in the summer of 1902. When they arrived in Minot they found the city so crowded with settlers that people were sleeping on the floor of the depots and hotels or wherever they could find a place to lie down. The next morning they rode their bicycles from Minot to Berthold on what is now Highway 2, but only a prairie trail at that time. The first guy they met in Berthold, then with a population of 200 people, was August Bumgartner, who offered these tired travelers a drink of water. He lived north of Berthold. In 1902 Ed Birdsall bought the quarter of land owned by the Warren family. Ed Birdsall returned to South Dakota
20 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
to get his family and moved to the Berthold farm. They came by emigrant cars to Foxholm on the Soo Line and unloaded their cattle and horses there. Afraid there might not be fence posts in North Dakota, they had lined the bottom of the floor of the rail cars with wooden fence posts so they would have them when they got here. Ed’s wife, Alberta, cooked meals for the family on a one-burner camp stove. That evening they hitched four horses to a wagon and drove across the country from Foxholm to Berthold to the Ripley farm. There were no roads at the time in this completely strange country. The next morning they drove to the farm north of Berthold. Later they went to Foxholm and brought their cattle and horses to Berthold. They lived on this farm for three years.
Ed and Alberta had three sons: Don, born when they lived in Minnesota, Leon, born in South Dakota, and Herb, born on the farm near Berthold. Ed then bought or traded this farm for one four miles west of Berthold on U.S. Highway 2. The youngest brother, Alan, was born here. He passed away in 1920. In 1911 a group of farmers invested in a Rumely Oil Pull tractor. They were known as the Passport Threshing Company. The company included old timers in Passport Township such as W.W. Wixer, Nels Larson, Curt Birdsall Sr., J.J. Stine, B.H. Pond and Ed Birdsall. The Rumely tractor was used for threshing for many years. The Birdsall brothers and their dad did a lot of farming with about 30 head of horses, with eight horses hitched on three-bottom plows and six horses on a drill. During the ‘20s and into the ‘30s they raised around 50 to 75 acres of potatoes and during the digging season many men, women and children wanted jobs to help pick potatoes so there was always a crew of about 18 to 20 to cook meals for. The potatoes were stored in a pit and in the winter they were sacked and shipped by train to New Orleans, Louisiana, St. Lous, Missouri, Chicago, Illinois, and other large cities. They rode in the refrigerator cars to take care of the potatoes on the way to the cities. At night they would sleep on top of the potato sacks in the car, which they heated to keep the potatoes from freezing. Ed and Alberta Birdsall passed away in the ‘20s. Their sons, Don, Leon and Herb inherited the farm and continued farming together for many years. Their farming operation became known as the Birdsall Farm Co.
In 1926 Herb Birdsall married Mildred Wixer and in 1935 they bought a farm and ranch southwest of Berthold. In October 1937 Don married Evelyn Moger. Leon never married. Don and Leon continued to farm together west of Berthold. Ralph and Russell, Don and Evelyn’s sons, joined them in the farming operation. In the 1920s and ‘30s, during the grain threshing season, there was a crew of 16 to 20 men, including bundle haulers, grain haulers, separator man and engineer. The crew had to be fed so the old-time cook car followed the threshing machine wherever it went. It sometimes meant having it parked in the middle of a field or a farm yard. A cook was hired to cook for the crew and she lived and slept in the cook car during the season. In the later years, the cook car was no longer used and the crew was fed in the house. The threshing season was hardly over when potato picking crews came. To feed them and the other crew was quite a busy job. Never a dull moment and everyone took it in stride and seemed to enjoy it. In 1940, they started using combines, which reduced the crew to six to eight men. as many as four JD 12A combines were used those years. The Birdsall Farm operation continues today. Russell passed away. Ralph and his wife, Phyllis, now retired, live in Minot. Craig Birdsall and his wife, Deanne, farm in the Berthold area. Taking over the home farm is Mark Birdsall and his wife, Colleen. Also farming with Mark and Colleen, is son-in-law Blake Inman and daughter Danae. – From information written by Evelyn Birdsall in 1975.
The Birdsall brothers and their dad did a lot of farming with about 30 head of horses, with eight horses hitched on three-bottom plows and six horses on a drill.
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MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 21
Photo by Sue Sitter
Ralph and Joann Anderson are shown with an aerial photo of the farmstead established by John O. Anderson in 1886.
By SUE SITTER
Anderson Farm at Rugby started more than 130 years ago
To many rural North Dakota families, a farm is an heirloom, passed on through future generations. But as some family legacies come to an end, so do the estates they grew, cared for and passed on to descendants. Weeds encroach on vacant buildings and roofs collapse. Ralph Anderson, grandson of homesteader John O. Anderson, recently moved to Rugby after a life of farming land settled by his grandfather in 1885. Ralph and his wife, Joanne, said they miss rural life, but they’re getting used to their apartment on the southeast side of town. Joanne said, “We still have the three-story house out there. It was built in the 1890s. That’s one reason we had to come to town. There’s water in the basement now. There’s a dam that runs right through, by the buildings.” Ralph indicated the water problem had worsened until “you couldn’t even use an above-ground pump to pump out the water.” “It’s pretty overrun,” Joanne smiled ruefully. “We haven’t mowed this year. Things have really gone down this year.” “The barn was really very old. And now, last year, the roof caved in,” added Ralph. “We had such a beautiful yard out there, but it’s really – we just quit now, and – it’s really gone to pot,” Joanne nodded. Ralph’s grandfather came to North Dakota from Norway, by way of Wisconsin. After arriving in Devils Lake in 1885, he set out on foot to stake a tree claim with fellow Wisconsin resident Thomas Walsh, for whom Walsh Township is named. Although Thomas Walsh and his family would return to Wisconsin years later, John O. Anderson established and worked his claim northwest of Rugby. Ralph Anderson said he wasn’t sure if his grand-
22 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
father lived in a sod house when he first established a homestead there. “On the piece of land they had, they built the first wooden house in Pierce County,” he said. John O. and Maggie Anderson reared two sons and three daughters in the home. John and Maggie’s son, Joseph, born in 1903, took over operation of the farm after the death of his father. Joseph’s son, Ralph, took over the farmstead after Joseph’s death in 1970. He married JoAnn Stavang in 1974. JoAnn had three children from a previous marriage, and her oldest daughter was already a mother herself. “My first husband passed away when he was 38,” JoAnn said. “So, Ralph got to be father, grandfather and husband, all at one time.” “My son grew up on the farm. My girls were already married. Just my son was out there. He was in high school at the time. He has allergies so bad, he couldn’t take it. He went into the Navy and stayed in California when he got out,” JoAnn continued. Daughter Donna Bundy lives in Rugby, while daughter LaRae Hagel lives in Montana. Their brother, Curtis, works in the tech sector in the San Jose, California, area. Were any family members interested in maintaining the farm property? “No,” Ralph answered. Ralph’s brother, Maynard, and his sister, Marion, are deceased. However, while the property homesteaded more than 130 years ago by John O. Anderson sits empty these days, Ralph and Joanne Anderson have a positive outlook. The farm still operates as Anderson Farm, and neighbors help with some of the land. Will the Anderson family and farm always have a presence? “Sure,” Ralph answered. “I certainly hope so,” Joanne added.
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Established 1897
with cattle drives, Long X erasynonymous of open range Ranch
Submitted Photos
The Long X Ranch, circa 1885-1895.
The Long X Ranch, the largest and most famous cattle ranches in McKenzie County, is synonymous with cattle drives and the era of open range in Dakota Territory. William D. and George T. Reynolds, brothers from Texas, purchased land from Hall and Braden, who had intended to operate a sheep ranch on Squaw Creek. The brothers established the ranch at the north end of Squaw Creek in the mid-1880s, now near the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and south of Arnegard. Squaw Creek was the Reynolds Cattle Co.’s North Dakota headquarters. Besides Squaw Creek, Spring Creek and Bowling Creek were a few areas to become home to the Long X cattle. In the spring of 1884, they moved their 4,000 Longhorns into the Badlands, said to be the first to come into the area. By 1888, the
24 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
Reynolds brothers were bringing three herds a year into Dakota Territory. They named their ranch for their official brand, the “Long X,” which descendants still use today. The Long X is said to be one of the first two brands recorded in North Dakota. During the early years, the Long X had the reputation of doing business in the most economical way of any ranching concern in the West. The Long X employed a large number of cowboys, especially for spring brandings and fall roundups. The men on the roundups worked seven days a week in all kinds of weather. The Reynolds brothers also had several hundred head of horses brought up from Texas to be ranged in the eastern part of McKenzie County. They set up a horse camp located a quarter of a mile west of Frank Keogh’s with over 3,000 horses ranging in that area. Many McKenzie County residents trace their roots to Texas cowboys who came up the Long X Trail and remained in the area. During the severe winter of 1886-87, the Reynolds brothers had about 11,000 head grazing in the fall, but by spring only 7,000 remained. The
Submitted Photos
TOP LEFT: George Thomas Reynolds and his wife, Lucinda Elizabeth Matthews, circa 1885-1895. MIDDLE LEFT: William D. Reynolds, circa 1885-1895. ABOVE RIGHT: A Texas trail map is displayed in the Long X Visitor Center in Watford City. The Reynolds brothers moved 4,000 Longhorns into the Badlands in 1884, said to be the first to arrive in Dakota Territory. Photo by Eloise Ogden
The Long X Ranch was founded by brothers, William D. and George T. Reynolds. Their company, the Reynolds Cattle Co., brought thousands of cattle from Texas to Dakota Territory in the late 1800s. operation never fully recovered and they sold the entire McKenzie County business to the Converse Cattle Company, owned by James Converse, a wealthy New Yorker, in 1898.
LEFT: This sign tells about the Long X Cattle Trail leading to the Long X Ranch.
The Long X name lives on in the U.S. Highway 85 bridge over the Little Missouri River south of Watford City and a sign in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park that tells about the Long X Trail. The North Unit of the park also has several Longhorns representing the early days of ranching in the area. The Long X Visitor Center and Museum in Watford City opened in summer 2005 and features exhibits and information about the historic ranch and trail. The Long X Saloon in Grassy Butte also carries the name. The Long X Ranch was inducted in the Ranch Category of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2004. Thomas B. Reynolds of Fort Worth, Texas, great-grandson of W.D. Reynolds, took part in the ceremony when the Long X Ranch induction. – Information from North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora, Long X Visitor Center and Museum in Watford City, and Minot Daily News files
MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 25
BRANDING
began in Dakota Territory more than 150 years ago By ELOISE OGDEN
Submitted Photo
The brand of the Connolly Brothers of Oakdale has two bars and is shown in the 1892 North Dakota Stock Growers’ Association brand book.
26 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
Hans O. Oium picked a homestead on June 24, 1884, in the Mouse River Valley north of the present site of Towner. As the years went by and his small herd of Shorthorn cross cattle increased, Oium was told he should record a brand. Oium chose to record a brand, an “O” with a slash through it, which was used on the Oium farm in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway, since the early 1600s. The brand represents the last letter in the Norwegian alphabet and the first letter in the Oium name. Oium means “island” in Norwegian, according to the supplement to the 1986 Brand Book. Oium brought the Oium brand iron with him from Norway when he came to North Dakota. In the Norwegian tradition, the brand was also used to mark trunks and other wooden property. The Oium brand was a small iron, like most Norwegian brands, because animals were branded on their hooves instead of on valuable hides. Hans Oium recorded his brand in North Dakota then Dakota Territory on July 12, 1888. When he used it on animal hides, he found it blotted and was hard to decipher when it healed. Oium decided to get another brand. He asked the brand recorders to pick a brand and record it for him. It came back “12” or one two brand called the Twelve brand by Oium’s neighbors. The local blacksmith made it in two irons so it was also used by the neighbors to make the 2 and an upside down “V” brand and some other combinations that weren’t recorded. Oium recorded the Twelve brand on June 12, 1892, according to the Brand Book information. Brand recording started in Dakota Territory more than 150 years ago. In 1862 the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Dakota passed an act which made it “the duty of the register of deeds of each county to record a description of the marks or brands, with which such person may be desirous of marking his horses, cattle, sheep, or hogs,” according to a supplement of the 1986 Brand Book.
The cost for recording any mark or brand was 20 cents and for giving a certificate of the same was 20 cents. In 1881 the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Dakota passed an act allowing for the recording of marks and brands by the county clerk of each county and set the recoding fee at $1. The county clerk and “two respectable stock owners of the county” appointed by the county commissioners would determine whether a brand or mark offered for record conflicted with any previously recorded brand or mark. Several years later, in 1890 the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota made it the duty of North Dakota’s Secretary of State to have two books, one the “brand record” and the other the “earmark record.” Later, the Legislative Assembly reduced the recording fee to $1 and several years later it was increased to $2. The Legislative Assembly again transferred the responsibility for recording brands in 1901 to the commissioner of agriculture and labor. The North Dakota Stockmen’s Association (NDSA) has operated the brand recording program since Aug. 1, 1993, when state law moved brand recording responsibilities from the Department of Agriculture to the NDSA, according to Rachael Preusse, brand recorder for the N.D. Stockmen’s Association. “Currently there are just under 22,000 livestock brands (21,934 as of Oct. 11, 2018). Brands are recorded and renewed on a five-year schedule determined by North Dakota law. All brands expire and must be renewed to continue using them. The next time brands expire is Jan. 1, 2021,” Preusse said.
Submitted Photos
ABOVE: This page of the 1892 North Dakota Stock Growers’ Association brand book shows the Long X brand, one of the earliest brands in North Dakota (Dakota Territory). A.N. Jeffries was ranch manager. RIGHT: A page in the 1892 North Dakota Stock Growers’ Association brand book has a number of early day brands including Theodore Roosevelt’s (right column, fifth from bottom).
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LONG X BRAND AMONG EARLY DAY BRANDS
The 1892 North Dakota Stock Growers Association book is the earliest brand book the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association in Bismarck has, according to Rachael Preusse, NDSA brand recorder.
Jacob Fannik Tom Larson
She said early day brands include the Long X owned by the Reynolds Brothers (A.N. Jeffries was ranch manager) and the AHA owned by Converse & Son of Newton, Mass. A.H. Arnett is also listed on an 1892 brand, she said.
Theodore Roosevelt brands can also be found in the 1892 and also 1902 brand books, Preusse said. Brands of the Connolly Brothers of Oakdale and S.M. Ferris of Medora also are among brands found in the 1892 brand book.
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MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 27
‘We Are Cattlemen – Our Lives Depend on It’
The Story of the
Fort Berthold Livestock Association By MARILYN HUDSON
It was 9 a.m., Saturday, April 30, 1949, in Washington, D.C. Thirty-year-old Nathan Little Soldier stood before members of the House Committee on Public Lands and spoke the following words: “I am a member of the Fort Berthold Livestock Association. I desire to speak to some extent on livestock business. The Three Affiliated Tribes have always been stockmen. Our reservation is an ideal place for livestock. It has been our practice to increase and better our herds. We specialize in Hereford cattle. Now that we are certain that this best part of our reservation is to be taken away, we will have to completely revise our cattle program to fit the poor and diminished area caused by the Garrison Dam.” On that spring morning 69 years ago, Mr. Little Soldier was part of a delegation from the Fort Berthold Reservation. They were there to testify before Congress on the value of their lands, 157,000 acres, which would soon be covered by the waters of the Garrison Dam. The Fort Berthold Reservation, once nearly 12 million acres, was reduced by several late 19th century executive orders. Only 645,000 acres remained when Mr. Little Soldier went to Washington in 1949.
Ranchers are shown during a summer roundup at the Independence community on the Fort Berthold Reservation in 1938. Photo courtesy of National Archives.
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Submitted Photo
Ranchers brand a calf on the Fort Berthold Reservation in 1948. Photo courtesy of National Archives.
Submitted Art
ABOVE: This map of the Fort Berthold Reservation was done during the Garrison Dam era by Ralph Shane, Bureau of Indian Affairs Fort Berthold Agency. RIGHT: Members of the Fort Berthold stockmen’s group meet at a corral on the Fort Berthold Reservation in 1942. Photo courtesy of National Archives. Federal Indian policy promoted development of farming and ranching units. The Indian Agency purchased 400 cows, 16 bulls, 2,500 sheep, 128 rams, 80 brood mares with their colts and 50 work oxen. The Fort Berthold people were now on their way to officially becoming ranchers and farmers. Almost every family already owned herds of range horses which grazed and roamed freely over the land. These Indian ponies would eventually become a burr under the saddle blanket of the “boss farmer,” the Indian agent who managed the agriculture programs. In later years, these rascally wild ponies still thought they ruled the prairies and began to trespass on homesteaders’ fields and pastures. The “boss farmer” pleaded with the Indian people to get rid of their horses who consumed much more grass and hay than cattle did. In 1930, the Agent complained that even though some reduction in horses had been made, there were still “2,200 horses east of the river and 1,400 west of the river.” The freedom of the vast prairie where
buffalo once roamed unrestrained now became a place of barbed wire and in 1904 the entire reservation was fenced. The “ID” livestock brand symbol (“Indian Department”) was very significant to the cattlemen of Fort Berthold. All livestock was branded with both the owners’ brand and the “ID” brand. The “ID brand” was on the right shoulder of cattle and the right hip on horses. This identified the animal as belonging to an Indian person from Fort Berthold. In some cases, the animal was mortgaged either to the Indian Bureau or to the Livestock Association. To sell the animal, the owner had to get a release or permit from the Indian Agency. In my father’s records is a letter from the N.D. Stockmen’s Association dated March 1952. It reads that a cow was sold at the Sidney sales ring in Sept., 1951. It was branded G over A (my father’s brand) on the right rib and “ID” on the right shoulder. The proceeds of the sale were awaiting a release from Martin Cross of Elbowoods.
Continued on Page 30
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MinotDailyNews.com • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • 29
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Submitted Photo
A herd of cattle is being driven on the Fort Berthold Reservation to a shipping point in 1948. Photo courtesy of National Archives.
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In 1954, the policy of branding Indian-owned livestock with the ID brand was discontinued. Indian agents were advised to repossess all “ID” branding irons issued to Indian cattlemen since they were considered to be Government property. The agent missed collecting at least one of these irons because in 1956 my father donated his “ID” branding iron to the N.D. State Historical Society. By 1944, there were nearly 400 brands belonging to Fort Berthold Indians registered in the Official Brand Book of the State of North Dakota. Livestock brands have their own sort of syntax or “pyroglyphics” (images made with fire). A look of some of the Indian brands from Fort Berthold shows some clever and intriguing “lazy, crazy, walking, flying, etc.” livestock brands. The re-lending program provided that a rancher would be issued X number of Hereford heifers depending upon his land ownership and his ability to care and feed the stock. He would then over a period of time “repay” 11 head for every 10 head of cattle issued to him. In that way, he would not only build up his herd but he would be providing stock for a new rancher waiting to get into the ranching business. The registered Hereford bulls were owned by the Government and maintained by the Stockmen’s Association. In the spring, the bulls would be assigned to various districts. They
30 • Centennial Farms and Ranches of North Dakota • MinotDailyNews.com
were returned to the Association in the fall for winter care at the “Bull Pasture and Corrals.” At this meeting in 1951, the Agency Superintendent met with the ranchers to talk about plans for the relocation as a result of the Garrison Dam which was already well underway in its construction. A few ranchers were planning to move their operations to higher ground hoping they could continue to maintain their cattle herds. The loss of their lands forced most of the ranchers out of the cattle business. The lack of land, water and the timber for shelter made it impossible to continue the thriving cattle operation which existed on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. As Nathan Little Soldier had testified in Washington, D.C., in 1949, the impact of the Garrison Dam devastated the cattle ranching economy on the Fort Berthold Reservation. By 1955, 152,260 acres of the Indians’ best lands were covered by the waters of the reservoir and 300 families relocated. Also lost under the water were: 146 frame houses, 171 log houses, 20 stucco houses, 118 barns, 27 granaries, 21 garages, 40 poultry houses, 87 corrals, 108 miscellaneous buildings, 365 miles of wire fences, 94 water wells, 29 springs and 24 streams through homesteads. Marilyn Hudson of Parshall is a longtime resident of the Fort Berthold Reservation. She is one of nine children of Martin and Dorothy Cross.