Celebrate, Educate and Energize

 
On February 17th members, during their regular noon hour meeting at Prante’s,  had the privilege of hearing from the people who led the celebration of one hundred years of jurisprudence at the Richland County Court house (built 1912; dedicated 1914) this past summer.  The celebration, entitled “Celebrate, Educate and Energize” also celebrated one hundred and forty one years of Richland County (established by the 1872-73 Territorial Legislature and the county administration were organized in 1873.  The county was named after a person who settled on the site of the current City of Wahpeton in 1869, one Morgan T. Rich).
       Kaye Braaten                             Janet Gagelin                         Matt Syvertson                    Renelle Bertsch                      Hon. Bradley Allen Cruff
 
            The effort was led by Kaye Braaten a former nurse educator and county commissioner who is now the County Service Representative at the National Association of Counties.  Claiming to have done little she had several of the committee members speak.
            Initially Janet Gagelin spoke of the pie and ice cream social.  The food was managed by local churches and her advice was to “just stay out of their way.”  The event included musical performances and an old fire engine but the most dramatic part was the flag retirement ceremony done by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  In 1975 and 76 a history of Richland County was written and the opportunity of this celebration was taken to build on that with a “coffee table” book self-published and hopefully will be available this summer for $ 9.99 at several local sites and at www.amazon.com.  Basically a pictorial the project was accomplished with the assistance of the English Department of North Dakota State College of Science.   The project was financed through the Historical Society and the Richland County Museum.
 
            Matt Syvertson is the GIS Coordinator for Richland County a job he explained would be better known as “mapping”.  This part of the whole project was to complete a sophisticated web page accurately mapping Richland County.  It included several podcasts which are still available through the County although the web page has since been taken down.  Out of the project came a very good quality printed map of Richland County (basically a highway map) that is available through the county.  This thirty-five thousand dollar project was supported by the Wahpeton Visitors and Convention Bureau.
            Other events included an employee appreciation luncheon for county employees.  It was very well attended despite it being held on the coldest stormiest day of the year.  And the County Essay contest for high school seniors to write about who they believed to be the most influential person buried in one of the seventy-four cemeteries in the county.  The prize was two two hundred and fifty dollar scholarships.  One event that never gained traction was the Richland-Wilken Counties Museums scavenger hunt that WCCO sponsored
            Wahpeton City Councilwoman and Rotarian Renelle Bertsch then spoke of the bus tours, one to the northern half of the county and the other south each run on June 14th and again on July 15th.  Both buses started at the JC Penny parking lot and each finished their tour with a dinner at the historic Bagg Farm.  Despite having lived here all their lives many of the participants learned things they were unaware of from the rich history of the county and of the current success stories in the county.  The first Governor of North Dakota was from Dwight although he had come from Ohio and returned there before his death.  In many cases participants on the bus had stories of the county history to tell and at most towns the tour groups heard from an expert who joined them from that town.
            The final speaker was The Honorable Bradley Allen Cruff, Judge of the District Court who spoke of the event surrounding the centennial celebration and rededication of the Richland County Court House.   One of the events was a mock trial presented by the fifth graders from Wahpeton who both wrote and acted the trial of Jack of Beanstalk fame.  He credited Superintendent Rick Jacobsen and the school for this event.  High school students had the opportunity to see the North Dakota Supreme Court in action.  The Justices heard a family court appeal.  The Justices also participated in the re-dedication of the courthouse.   The Sherriff’s Department sponsored a luncheon at the courthouse recalling the evening dinner the night of the original dedication in 1914.  Judge Cruff also took issue with Kaye Braaten’s assertion that she did little saying that she “drove the wagon and pulled it off”; a hugely successful celebration of Richland County history: “Celebrate, Educate and Energize”.