Heritage Renewal

There has been quite a bit of coverage in the Fargo Forum (www.in-forum.com) lately about the Can Pile, a historic roadside landmark in Casselton. The owner of the property on which the Can Pile sits, Loegering Manufacturing, wishes to demolish it. Citizens of Casselton, led by Ken Habiger, are trying to forge a plan for its preservation. As director of the Center for Heritage Renewal, and thus a party concerned about the preservation and use of heritage resources, I sent this letter to Mr. Habiger.

We compile thousands of digital photos for the "Highways & Trails of the WPA" project. Following up on the last post, which linked to YouTube for a video of buildings and tunnels at Grafton State School, here's a selection of digital photographs from GSS posted at Webshots.

Fieldwork continues for the project, "Highways & Trails of the WPA," aimed at updating and digitizing the auto tours originally published in the WPA guide to North Dakota of 1938. Pending completion of the Highways & Trails website, we'll begin posting things of interest via this weblog and free web-sharing media--YouTube, for instance.

Yesterday, for instance, we were nosing about historic sites in Grafton, including the Grafton State School, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This institution began its life, and is listed in the original WPA guide, as the "Grafton State School fo the Feeble-minded"; indeed, the state constitution provided that "there shall be located at or near the ciy of Grafton, in the county of Walsh, an institution for the feebleminded." In 1938, according to the WPA guide, the school had 778 "inmates" and 110 staff. Legal action in the 1970s and 1980s resulted in the dispersal of most of the school's clients to group homes.

Which means that the considerable campus of the state school is being given over to new uses, including apartment complexes, a VA clinic, and recreational uses. Many citizens of Grafton avail themselves of the tunnel network underlying the campus as a venue for winter exercise; in fact, there is a mile-long tunnel trail marked out with red arrows for the guidance of those walking or jogging through. We walked the whole circuit, and here's the video to prove it!

Courtesy of Grant Wood, a mainstay of community theater in Ellendale, we've just received a copy of the Spring 2008 newsletter of OPERA, Inc., of Ellendale. This reports the organization of the Ellendale Area Arts Council, a new 501-c-3 nonprofit that is a sort of a spinoff from OPERA. (OPERA long has carried the ball for both historic preservation and arts initiatives in the community.)

The newsletter goes on to report all sorts of energetic and ingenious activities, beginning with the upcoming Spring Fling and German Buffet at the Ellendale Senior Center starting at 5pm Sunday, April 13. Pigs in blankets, cheese buttons, knoephla, sausage & kraut, fried chicken, strudels, kuchen--the whole works. Plus a big fund-raising auction at 6pm, with proceeds going toward restoration of the Opera House. More information is available from Jeanette Ruenz (jrbruenz@drtel.net).

There is a report, too, on the highly successful World Art Show held in the Opera House lobby on February 23-24. This was one of those great ideas you wonder why no one thought of before. OPERA and the arts council cooked it up, sending out an appeal to people in the community to offer items for exhibit--items collected in foreign travels, mission work, employment abroad, and so on. The collection assembled comprised more than 200 items from 40 countries. A world regional geography class at the high school researched the countries represented and made posters about them, while organizational volunteers prepared desserts from the various lands. Not only school kids but also more than 150 other people, many driving in from surrounding towns, took in the exhibit.

The publication gives notice of the upcoming Roddy MacInnes photo exhibition on May 2-6 (which we'll have to plug a little later) and provides various historical sketches about the Opera House.

You can read a good write-up about the Opera House from North Dakota Horizons here.

Say, that reminds me - isn't it about time that all this good work in Ellendale got a web presence? The restoration work on the old opera house is spectacular, and the community activities are intriguing. Maybe we should work on that.

The website for the survey of wrought iron cross cemeteries in North Dakota has been absent with leave for a few months while being moved from private to university serviers. It's back. Visit it here.

The Aberdeen News has given the Ellendale Opera House, object of one of those they-said-it-can't-be-done restoration efforts that are becoming more and more common across North Dakota, some great press. Reporter Gretchen Mayer writes,

There are visions in the three-story brick building - no question. But the visions are held by the eight members of OPERA Inc. (Organization of People in Ellendale for the Restoration of the Arts), who have their sights set on restoring the building to its former glory.

Ignoring the advice of a structural engineer who, in 1999, told Ellendale City Council members that the building would cost too much to repair and should be torn down, the members of OPERA Inc. decided to raise the nearly $3 million that it would take to save their beloved three-story Main Street centerpiece, which is listed on the Register of Historic Places.

There are, of course, great quotes from perennial activist Jeanette Robb-Ruenz. The whole piece is upbeat, and rightly so, as this restoration effort anchors a revival of the Ellendale business district and, indeed, the community.

Go to the Aberdeen News for the article, dated 27 January 2008.

Leo Beauchamp, the memory painter of Olga, North Dakota, spent a remarkable hour in the MU Gallery with the students of HIST 431, "The North American Plains," Tuesday afternoon, November 13. Responding to questions from interviewer Suzzanne Kelley and from students in the audience, he described how as a former farmer and an untrained artist he set about "rebuilding" the memory of Olga as he remembered it from his boyhood. He traced his acestry back to France, across to Quebec, and out to North Dakota, and recounted stories of his family, neighbors, and parish. Leo was accompanied by Lenore, his wife, and was greeted by Emily, his grandaughter, a student at NDSU. After the program staff of the gallery set about hanging Leo's paintings for an exhibition that will remain well into December. See more photos of Leo's visit here at Webshots. Read student responses to the program in the HIST 431 Webblog. Leo's program was sponsored by the Center for Heritage Renewal as part of the Great Plains Folk Festival.