Vintner's Cellar

September 9, 2009

We were in Fargo today for an enjoyable lunch and some shopping. Someone told us to look for a place called “Vintner’s” on Broadway and we found it, just a few blocks south of where we had lunch before at “Toscano’s” -- also on Broadway. Here they make and sell over 40 kinds of wine.

In the entrance way, there was this photo of Broadway 70 years ago (top photo) before our nation was involved in WWII. Vintner’s is the establishment which is the fourth from the left. The RR gates then belonged to the Northern Pacific. Today we had to wait for a BNSF freight train to pass at this same intersection, carrying building products from the West.

For lunch we chose an excellent basil tomato soup with a half sandwich. For a beverage we chose their Winter Spice, which is Vintner’s equivalent of a Pinot Grigio, one of Lois’ favorites. It was a delicious lunch.

Of the over 40 types of wine, Vintner’s offers 13 fruit wines. We are not big on fruit wines. There are five North Dakota wines -- Chokecherry, Foch, St. Croix, Rhubarb and Strawberry Rhubarb. We were looking for a “Juneberry” but maybe that’s something they could work on. Three of these are also fruit wines. There are six whites, imitating the usual flavors. The reds are the biggest group with 15 different types.

Lunch continues to be our favorite way of going out for a meal. We can take our time and not worry about work schedules.

Theodore Slattum's Place

September 9, 2009

This log cabin, located a half mile north of the park entrfance on the Valley Road, was built in 1879 by Theodore Slattum, a Norwegian immigrant who became one of the most prosperous pioneers in Ransom County, eventually owning and farming 1,000 acres mortgage free.

Slattum was born in Christiana, Norway, in 1836 -- oldest son of five children. He learned the art of making barrel staves as a teenager, then spent 11 years in the Norwegian army. He immigrated to America, settling first in Fillmore County, Minnesota. Then he moved to the Sheyenne River Valley, to this spot, traveling by ox wagon with $40 to his name.

In 1945 this Slattum cabin was moved to Ft. Ransom but was moved back to this original spot. Theodore Slattum and his wife raised nine children in this cabin. The Slattum family was known for their musical talent and son Hans led the Preston brass band.

We stopped and examined this property on our way back from Fargo today. One thing we can say about it is: This is a quiet and beautiful place with the river in the background.

Bench Braces

September 7, 2009

We suggested a park improvement to Director John and he responded within a few days. We noticed that all the benches in the park were sloping toward the front as a result of a failure in the cantilever joints. John went to Lisbon on Saturday and bought all of the materials. By Monday the project was completed. The following is my report to John by e-mail which included both photos:

The eight hiker benches throughout Ft. Ransom State Park have been reinforced and made rigid with the installation of two 4”x4” braces attached to each bench. The above photo shows two green braces. Two torque-head fasteners were put into the upright member at the bottom of the brace and two longer fasteners were placed into the old wood at the top of the brace. Treated lumber was used, but the cut ends were soaked in treating material before installation. The braces were approximately 20” in length and the bottom cut was made at the site to match the angle of the old uprights, as shown in the larger photo above.

However, some benches were so close to the ground that a shorter version of the brace was fashioned to the bench, as shown in the top photo above. This bench is located in the playground area immediately north of the visitor’s center.

Both versions should last a long time. Every bench in the park was rickity, in that the seat sloped down and to the front when attempting to sit on the bench. This can give an unsettling and unsafe feeling to the park user. Now the benches are rigid and do not give way to the weight of someone sitting on them.

The repair of the benches took approximately ten hours, including the time to travel to each bench via the Toro Workman.

Georgia Visits

September 3 - 6, 2009

Georgia and her friend, Larry Gruber (no relation to Franz Gruber as we talked about that), arrived Thursday evening about 4:30 p.m. They had arrived in Fargo late morning, rented a car and made a few sales calls at North Dakota State University at Fargo and Valley City State at Valley City. Georgia was a bit up tight because some important university customers were putting last-minute holiday weekend pressure on her. Within 24 hours, however, that was all worked out and Georgia could get on with the business of enjoying her weekend.

Larry, almost 40 years of age, was on his first camping trip. He brought along his sleeping bag that he had as a cub scout about 30 years earlier. Georgia was about to coach Larry that camping was really fun. At first I didn’t understand how that could be possible, but subsequent events throughout the weekend proved me wrong. Larry said he had a wonderful time and that he would like to go camping again.

“My expectations about North Dakota (which weren’t much) were totally blown away,” Larry said.

After visiting downtown Fargo, including the prairie art museum, and seeing the scenery of the Sheyenne River Valley, Larry owned up to what the area has to offer. He is from Cleveland and now lives in a Chicago high rise. He slept all three nights in Georgia Kelty tent without complaint.

Georgia and Larry had to go back to Fargo e ton Friday to meet with the Athletic Director of NDSU. While there, they went shopping at a local grocery -- Sunmart -- and brought back enough food for a super feast. Friday evening we had tacos and taco salad, followed by a movie, and Saturday we had spinach salad, chicken kabobs and corn on the cob, followed by a camp fire. We managed to get in a lot of visiting as well. The weather was fabulous.

On Saturday, Georgia and Larry rented a double-seater kayak to enjoy the Sheyenne River. The park staff gave them transport to a launching place upstream and they paddled three and a half hours back to the visitor center. In the afternoon they hiked some of the 16 miles of trails which have been been built in the park.

In order to be on time for the plane out of Fargo, Georgia and Larry left the park about 10:30 a.m. Lois went to work earlier and I got busy on the bench project after they left. We all had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the visiting and conversations all weekend long. Thanks for coming out to visit us, you guys.

9.7.09 George and Lois,

I can't thank you enough for being such a gracious host/hostess during my weekend in Ft. Ransom. Camping was such a fun adventure and I thoroughly enjoyed discovering North Dakota! To think that I can now build a campfire -- wow!!

Have a safe and pleasant journey back to Florida. Thanks again, Larry

Standing Rock Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church

The death of Marie Slattum in 1881 pointed up a real need in the newly formed community of Ft. Ransom[pop. 105]. There was no Church, no minister, no cemetery. The ceremony for Marie was held in the Slattum home and she was buried in the yard at the family home. The mourners decided it was time to build a church.

They built this only church in Ft. Ransom and built everything inside with volunteer labor. The church grew so much that by 1908 they added more room. The photo here shows what the church looks like today.

The original altar with a backdrop done by a local artist (circa 1980) is still there. The backdrop depicts Christ with an angel. The stained-glass windows were installed during the 1908 expansion of the church. The organ, purchased from a Boston organ builder, was installed in 1910.

Seattle Steve

August 26 - Sep 1, 2009

We met Steve at Hector International in Fargo when he got off the plane at 5:15 p.m. Steve had flown from Seattle to Portland to Chicago to Fargo and it took him most of the day. We made a group decision and headed back to Ft. Ransom State Park which is a distance of about 80 miles.

Lois and I had already had a full day in Fargo -- a first time for both of us. We drove around a bit and saw some interesting sites. For example, we went by the campus of Minnesota State University at Moorhead (MN) which in 1928 was the Minnesota State Teachers College at Moorhead. That’s where Grandma Dorothy got her two-year teaching certificate. She taught school for two years and married George Fischer in June of 1930. I had never seen this place before and it was good to make that connection.

The highlight of the day was lunch at Toscano’s on Broadway. We both had the same thing -- a spinach salad and a walleye filet with lots of vegetables in a wine sauce. This was the first time we dined in style since the Red Lobster in Bismark several weeks ago. It was delightful.

We shopped for groceries at SunMart in West Fargo. SunMart and Hornbacher’s are the two regional chains here that seem to be the leaders in supermarkets.

Steve’s visit was most pleasant and was marked by a lot of visiting and reminiscing about the old days as well as a hike a day. Steve walked every hiking path in Ft. Ransom State Park while he was here. There was a trail-building crew from Bismark finishing up an 8-mile path and Steve hiked that one also. The paths are wide and cut into the hills by machine. In the winter they will be for cross-country skiing and snowmobiles. I worry about the same path being used by people on foot and those on mechanized equipment -- a recipe for disaster. Hopefully the park management will figure that one out and set policy accordingly.

We had a cocktail hour every day and the dinner plans seemed to please everyone. Before bed, we usually watched English comedy, “Keeping Up Appearances,” or a movie -- “Analyze This” and “Analyze That”, a Robert DeNiro-Billy Crystal spoof on New York crime families. They were all hilarious.

The week went by very quickly. We enjoyed every minute. It was a wonderful time and we are very happy Steve took the time to come and visit.

“That really was a good visit,” Steve wrote by e-mail. “It's great to see you both doing so well and enjoying yourselves.”

“Thanks for everything you did to make the trip work out so well, Steve continued. “Have a safe trip back and keep in touch.”

The Sunne Farm

August 23, 2009

I’m sitting in the dining room of a farm house that was built in 1899 -- 110 years ago. This house was completely rehabed about ten years ago after the State Park Department acquired the farm from the owner, a successor owner after the Sunne family sold the place.

The project included raising this house off it’s foundations, removing the old foundation, putting in a new modern basement, resetting the house on the new foundation, and tearing out the inside wall coverings, installing new insulation and wiring and refinishing the walls and floors.

This dining room is very nice. It is about 8’ x 12’ in size and the walls are covered with beaded boards laid horizontally. The ceiling is also covered with beaded boards. The floor is a bare toung-and-groove fir flooring with a polyurethane finish. The trim on the doors and windows is much like the original.

The entire floor consists of this dining room, a parlor, a master bedroom and a kitchen. All are finished the same way except that the floows are done in a maple toungue-and-groove flooring. There are three small bedrooms upstairs which have no closets, but there is ample room to place clothes hanging poles or clothes hooks in the little niche areas.

What is a mystery to us is how ten children slept in three small bedrooms. We have talked about it and tried to puzzle it out, but there are no answers.

We are here because we do our laundry in the basement where there is a modern washer and dryer -- something else the Sunne family never had here. This farm is a joint project of the State Park and The Sodbuster Association who work together to put on “Sodbuster Days” twice a year to demostrate how horses and oxen were used to power farm machinery way back then. More about that will be detailed in another posting.

This house has a real charm. It was the place where Andrew and Johanna Sunne raised their ten children after coming to America from Norway in 1884 and 1885. Andrew came over in 1884 to prepare for his family and Johanna followed with two children in 1885. To get his family here, Andrew borrowed $54.50 from his friend, John Brink, and that purchased steeerage from Oslo, Norway, to Lisbon ND -- 17 miles away, which was a very long day’s trip in those days by horse and wagon. Today that trip would easily cost $3,000 for a woman with two children.

They lived in a log cabin on the farm for the first 14 years until they could afford to build a house. The children kept arriving until there were eight children in the family by 1899. They moved into this house just before Christmas, 1899, and what a wonderful holiday that must have been. Two more children - Alfred and Emma - were born into this house after the family moved in.

The ten Sunne children, three sons and eight daughters, from the oldest to the youngest, were as follows:
1. Ole Sunne, born 1881 in Norway and married in 1916 in North Dakota.
2. Borghild Sunne, born in 1882 in Norway.
3. Anna Sunne, born November 17, 1886, at the Sunne log cabin (Anna #1 was born in 1883 and died June 17, 1885)
4. Jenny Sunne, born October 27, 1888, at the Sunne log cabin.
5. Mary Sunne, born April 16, 1890, at the Sunne log cabin.
6. Louise Sunne, born January 15, 1892 and died a week later, January 22, 1892
7. Carl Sunne, born May 26, 1893, at the Sunne log cabin.
8. Alma Sunne, born September 29, 1895, at the Sunne log cabin.
9. Helen Sunne, born July 22, 1897, last child born in the log cabin, later married a Libak and moved to Chicago.
10. Alfred Sunne, born January 23, 1900, in the house shown in the photo.
11. Emma Sunne, born _____________________

The Sunne family farmed a total of 909 acres in the Sheyenne River valley (owned and rented acreage) and Andrew experimented with various hybrids of wheat. For 15 years he tried to grow peaches in North Dakota, and finally gave that up. Andrew was also a poet. He was born in Norway in 1858 and died at this farm here on October 22, 1912, at 54 years of age. His wife, Johanna, followed him on June 17, 1921, at 62 years of age.