LANDMARKS OF KITTSON COUNTY

Comment by Glenn Browne on March 19, 2009 at 9:49am

This old tree landmark is located about a mile and a half north of Hawkyard’s Corner on County road #5, about a quarter of a mile west of the road. Some drive by every day and never notice it but the old timers speak of it often. I am given to understand a house once sat near the trees but it is long gone. I have been told it was the AUGMAN family place but I need more information. Add something if you can.

Comment by Glenn Browne on March 19, 2009 at 10:03am

This common landmark is located at the junction of #175 and #5 which is east of Hallock and south of Lancaster. The original Hawkyard farm was located on the south east corner of the intersection and the house was moved a number of years ago to the west of the old Oscar Nordin post office/farm.
Additional information would be appreciated.

Comment by Glenn Browne on March 26, 2009 at 3:19pm

This old Post office, 1900 - 1904, is still located on the original site of the post master M. O. "Oscar" Nordin's farm, two miles south of Lancaster on CR#5 and three miles west on CR#17. It has been used as a hunting cabin for more than twenty years by Oscar's son Ralph and friends.

Comment by Glenn Browne on March 26, 2009 at 3:25pm

The sign on the front of the old Bonish, Mn Postoffice south of Lancaster.

Comment by Glenn Browne on April 2, 2009 at 8:53pm

Many people drive by the Grasshopper Corner today and wonder why this intersection has such an odd name. In the summer of 1905, farmers in the area noticed a major outbreak of grasshoppers in one particular field. The local farmers devised a plan to kill many of the pesky grasshoppers. They built a device that was eight to ten feet in length and looked like a large trough on wheels. It was filled with some kind of fuel, probably Kerosene. It was pulled across the field by two running horses which caused the grasshoppers to fly up and land in the fuel. By the time the horses arrived at the end of the field the tank was full of dead grasshoppers. Farmers standing on the edge of the field would dump out the dead grasshoppers and then put more fuel in the tank. The team continued back and forth across the field and when they were finished the piles of dead grasshoppers were two feet high and half a mile along the edge of the road. Back in those days County Road #1, was also knowns as the Orleans road. People who came by and saw the piles of grasshoppers ended up calling the field and the intersection Grasshopper Corner.
A few years leater a school was built on this corner and it was nicknamed Grasshopper School. It burned down years later, was replaced and then was closed and moved into Lancaster. The above information was extracted from an article written in the North Star News on October 15, 1998, by Valerie Swenson when she was a Junior at Lancaster School. She obtained the information from her grandfather Oscar Swenson, who in turned obtained the facts from his stepfather, Martin Peterson. Thanks Valerie.

Comment by Glenn Browne on June 4, 2009 at 11:36am

The Jolliete Ferry was located in Hill township a mile north of the present bridge that crosses the Red River on Highway #175. The photo shows the road looking west towards the Red River. Once the road reached the river it proceed north west along the river bank for about a quarter of a mile before reaching the ferry itself. The Ferry then crossed the river to the west bank near Jolliete North Dakota. Other than the road along the riverbank, all traces of the Ferry and landing are gone.

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