North Dakota’s oldest family farm to celebrate 150 years

MAYVILLE, N.D. — In mid-June, descendants of Erick and Kari Evenson will collect on North Dakota’s oldest family-run farm.

It was a difficult begin for these immigrants once they got here to the world from Scandinavia in 1872. 

A soybean subject on the farm has been planted each spring for 150 years. When the Evensons got here from Norway, the household lived in gap dug right into a hill.

“The primary winter, possibly two winters, (they lived in) the dugout down there,” Lavon Nelson, a great-grandson, stated.

Oak from a close-by tree was used to construct a log cabin. Among the unique lumber nonetheless stays within the farmhouse, the place a great-great-granddaughter lives at the moment.

“I grew up simply down the street from right here, and that is my residence away from residence,” stated Annette Struck, a great-great-granddaughter of Erick and Kari Evenson. “Grandma and grandpa lived right here. I’d simply hop and skip down right here on a regular basis and go to them. I by no means in 1,000,000 years as a baby would have dreamt that this may be a spot I’d elevate my entire household sometime. I’m so grateful.”

In a pair weeks, lots of the 340 direct descendants of that couple will collect in Mayville.

What a celebration. A farm, a household. A 150-year relationship on the state’s oldest farm. It survived the Nice Despair and the farm disaster of the Nineteen Eighties.

“It is an actual foundational place that I declare,” Struck stated.

On this historic farm sits an previous oak. At 150 inches round, it’s the greatest in North Dakota, and it’s estimated to be about 450 years previous.

The unique plow utilized in 1872 to interrupt floor by the Norwegian immigrant who began this all was discovered buried close to the Goose River.

“When you concentrate on it, a workforce of oxen, neither one needed to take another step having to tug a silly plow,” Nelson stated.

On the celebration the weekend of June 25, the household will take the unique plow and re-enact the primary dig from 150 years in the past.

All these descendants, linked to that daring couple that boarded a ship in Norway, not sure what life awaited them. And 150 years later, their fields are farmed with the identical hope and dedication.

“300 forty-some individuals can hint their direct bloodline again to this place,” Nelson stated.