Rural Heritage December 2025/January 2026

by Joe Mischka T he Fall Sodbuster Days in Fort Ransom, N.D., has a lot going for it. For starters, it is located in Fort Ransom State Park in the heavily wooded Sheyenne River Valley, giving it a gorgeous backdrop. Secondly, the Fort Ransom Sodbusters Association volunteers have built and maintained an amazing farmyard with house, barns, sheds and more that is worth visiting even without the horses. And that brings us to the third compelling feature of the event: the horses and their owners. I go to a lot of these kinds of events, and almost every one of them has a great group of teamsters. Sodbuster Days is no exception. It is very well organized with a list of activities involving horses and a particular teamster assigned to the job. Those activities include digging potatoes, cleaning the barns, binding corn, raking and putting up loose hay, horse-powered threshing and corn grinding. The Fort Ransom Sodbuster Association hosts an event in the summer and fall. Go to fortransomsodbusters.com for details. Sodbusters Day

John Kaline hauls some of the manure cleaned out from the horse barns each morning using a team owned by Rodney Lugert.

Rural Heritage

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