| Summary: | These four townships were organized politically in 1884-1887, and named Lake and Rochester, Rich and Page. They comprise that corner of the county which lies farthest from the county seat of Fargo. The four townships are cross-transected by two main roads, gravelled and maintained. Coming from the Garner Corner on Highway 81 on the east edge of Cass County, the one gravel road. Highway 26 goes west past Page in the direction of the old Sibley Crossing of the Sheyenne River in Barnes County. At Page, Highway 26 is crossed by Highway 38 coming up from Buffalo, (N.D.); this road angles northwest then, following the railroad to Colgate and Hope in Steele County. The trading area of Page has always fingered out beyond these four townships: into Steele County, particularly Broadlawn Township; into Ellsbury and Minnie Lake Townships in Barnes County whose border is only one tier of townships removed from here on the west; into Cornell and Lake Townships on the south, and Erie and Dows Townships on the east. It was not the highways, but rather a branch of Jim Hill's railroad system that established the town at the center of the four townships, upon a slight elevation of till between two headwater areas that were largely swampy until drained by farming activities. From such a low, somewhat boggy area to the east, a branch of the Elm River takes its origin, running north first, then east. To the west of town, the Maple River drains south (later also turning east); as it thus passes through Rochester and Lake Townships, if penetrates a swamp that once covered an area of more than five sections of land- In 1953 the Federal Government aided in the construction of the "big ditch" which now drains these lands. The hills beyond the Maple River, rise higher, forming a blue horizon. From a spot on highway 38, looking straight west to Walden on the Surrey Cutoff (R. R.), the tops of the Walden Elevators appear below the line of the horizon. Beyond the horizon is the Sheyenne. Our area represents half of the land in Cass County that is up and out of the Red River Valley proper. According to topographic and scientific de- liniations, the last important beach of ancient Lake Aggasiz is found eight miles east of Page, at the junction of the Galesburg Road and Highway 26. This is Herman Beach. (3) The quaternary ground moraine soils of our area lie about 300 feet higher above sea level than the points where the Maple and the Elm Rivers enter the Red River of the North. Chapter II Before The Settler Came VIKINGS — At Kensington, Minnesota, a stone was found with runic writing on it, which is now usually known as the "Kensington Runestone." No better theory, in my opinion, has been developed concerning the men who inscribed the stone, than the one which holds that they were part of a private crusade against the heathen Eskimos. (4) We are not directly concerned with the various theories here. The Runestone is the only document of such an early visit of white men to the Red River Valley. The date on the stone being 1362, means that in another five years will occur the six hundreth anniversary. Public attention may well be directed to a celebration of that anniversary. A local consequence of this may be that question will again be raised concerning a hoax perpetrated in 1946, when newspapers carried a story stating that a Viking Ship had been discovered in North Dakota; there are people who still suspect that a lot of gold might be buried in the low ground of Section 8 in Rich Township. So we are forced to treat of this matter. There is a saying sometimes expressed in religious circles, that for every genuine miracle one hears of half a dozen fake miracles. We are obliged to separate the true from the false. A runestone was found in Minnesota. In contrast, our Vernon Jempsa has never at any time seen a Viking ship, or any other sea-worthy ship, in North Dakota. The story was first published in the MINNEAPOLIS DAILY TIMES, Saturday Evening, August 10, 1946. Since it appeared in bold headlines, the MINNEAPOLIS STAR AND TRIBUNE, and other papers, felt obliged to carry the account also. Otherwise it might never have received publicity at all. Competent historians immediately investigated the reports, and found that there was no basis for thinking a Viking Ship had been seen in this area. At first the location of the ship was given as near Arthur, North Dakota, then Argusville. (7) Those who sought to get at the bottom of the thing were thus led on a merry goose chase by Mr. Jempsa. Whiie the affair was being aired by the papers, Mr. Jempsa sent three letters to a farmer near Page, who had inquired about the matter. He made a map for him. Six years later, while reviewing the letters, I made a free-hand copy of this map which is reproduced on a following page. 11 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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