NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

May 25, 2000

Plains Folk: Missing the Direction of Place

Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University
©2000 Plains Folk

I started out in a foul mood a few days ago as I was driving to Manfred--it's halfway between Fessenden and Harvey, and if that doesn't place it for you, well, I don't know what to say. The reason for the drive was to attend a meeting of Preservation North Dakota. PND is the statewide organization devoted to historic preservation, which over the past year has been concentrating its efforts on saving rural churches (check it out at www.prairiechurches.org).

I was cranky because I was ruminating over the destruction of St. Philip's Church of Hirschville, a perfectly good church building that no longer had an active congregation. Local parishioners in Dunn County, responsible people with technical support from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, were prepared to take the building, preserve it and put it to good use, but the demolition went ahead, heedless.

Now, I could write you a thesis about the architectural and historical significance of St. Philip's, with a chapter on its unique significance to German-Hungarian culture on the plains, but I don't need to. Simple farm-boy good sense tells me that this sort of destruction is foolish waste. Since my ancestors were Vandals, I know senseless destruction when I see it.

This sort of thing happens on the northern plains all the time, of course, and has been happening since 1950 or so--all my life. I ought to be used to it, but I'm not, and I really don't want to be. All right, on to Manfred.

Pulling onto the interstate and switching on the radio, I heard a state official talking about how we need to stop being sentimental about our schools and deal with them simply as "service providers." God save us from experts like that.

Anyway, I decided to travel on the gravel to Manfred, which was a good idea. The sloughs teemed with waterfowl, everything from peeps to pelicans. The honkers had their broods out in the sun and were doing their low-down hissy dance at any creature that approached. Even gadwalls are pretty on a day like that. Avocet stilting the shallows were downright elegant.

Attitude improving, I gave up thinking about why people destroy beautiful things and considered instead just what I need to say to such people. What are the reasons for keeping and preserving a beautiful church or any other beautiful work of humankind in this Great Plains landscape, depopulated by the vicissitudes of the past half-century?

You have to begin with what you think is happening here. Our common assumption over the years has been that the country is going south--that there isn't much use trying to maintain things, or invest in things, because everybody is leaving anyway.

That was strategic thinking in 1960. I know it's a little strange for a historian to put it this way, but if you're still thinking in those terms, then you're living in the past. There are still people here, there will be people here 20 years from now, and in fact, people are moving here from clear across the country--on purpose.

A church, or an American foursquare farmhouse, or for that matter a gas station, has greater importance in this sparsely populated lone land than it does in some other part of the country. These are the things we give directions by. More important, these are the things that give us direction. They are fundamental to the sense of place--the sense of living in a livable landscape.

That goes for natives of the country, and just as much for newcomers. The greatest disincentive to newcomers is the impression that a location is not a place--that it has no history. Resettlement of a country invariably crystallizes around landmarks in the historic landscape. Lacking those, prospective newcomers go elsewhere, to somewhere that is a place.

Well, I still haven't reached Manfred; I'll get there next week.

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Source: Tom Isern, (701) 231-8339
Editor: Dean Hulse, (701) 231-6136

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