Bonanza Farms Excavated: The First Industrial Farms of North Dakota

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Co-Producing Space: Relational Approaches to Agrarian Landscapes, Labor, Commodities, and Communities", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Bonanza farms are iconic of and central to the white settlement of North Dakota, but were surprisingly short lived (beginning in the 1870s, larger holdings were being dissolved by the 1890s). These large agroindustrial operations cultivated tens of thousands of acres in wheat, imported large numbers of laborers seasonally, and were tied to the rise of flour mills (think Kellogg and Pillsbury) in Minneapolis. With the introduction of innovative and improved machinery, bonanza farms transitioned into something of a tenant farming system; yet, the wealth, political influence, and infrastructure that stemmed from the rise of these farms can still be seen in the region. The first archaeological study of this unique farming system began in the summer of 2023. This paper will present preliminary findings from excavations as well as begin an exploration of how bonanza farms set the stage for the agrarian socio-landscape in what is now North Dakota.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Co-Producing Space: Relational Approaches to Agrarian Landscapes, Labor, Commodities, and Communities

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow