The winter of 2021-22 has been hard, in a variety of ways. But it pales in comparison to the hardships faced by our ancestors in the region's agriculture.
The book by Neil Dahlstrom, which covers the 20-year period of the 20th century when tractors were introduced into U.S. agriculture, contained enough interesting characters and companies, backstage intrigue and agricultural history, to keep me turning the pages until the end.
"Tractor Wars: John Deere, Henry Ford, International Harvester, and the Birth of Modern Agriculture" is a new book by Neil Dahlstrom that looks at the behind-the-scenes action of tractor manufacturing in the early 1900s.
The $237,265 legacy grant will be used by the History Center of Olmsted County to rehabilitate the smokehouse which architectural historians have said is unique to the region.
The 100-year anniversary of the Cattle Barn, which has around 1,000 head of cattle inside throughout the fair each year, was celebrated this year after last year's fair was cancelled.
Some vehicle manufacturers in the 1920s favored adding lead to gasoline to increase octane and to reduce engine knocking. Ford thought ethanol could do the same while also helping farmers.
When we gather as old men, talk often turns to the former days when we worked together without pay to accomplish something great. The consensus is that we did not realize how good we had it.
The Great Western Cattle Trail was used during the late 19th century for movement of cattle and horses to markets in eastern and northern states. North Dakota Great Western Trail Chair Darrell Dorgan explains the process of marking the trail, courtesy of a handful of volunteers who placed obelisks and black marble markers from the South Dakota border to Belfield last summer and completed the remainder of the North Dakota portion in its entirety this summer.
Agriculture became more efficient after the farm crisis in the 1980s. But for many, the turmoil of the decade led to losses of ways of life and of dreams.
