Since pioneer days, the life of a North Dakota farmwife was often described as one of unrelenting hardship, drudgery, and isolation. On this date in 1930, the Bismarck Tribune announced plans for "a sort of paradise" for farmwives. Vacation camps with games, picnics, music programs, community singing, and recreation would be enjoyed in pleasant surroundings, "where cooking, dishwashing, laundering, and the other usual duties of the farm mother are taboo."
The four-day summer camps were sponsored by the North Dakota Agricultural College (now NDSU) extension service, in cooperation with county agents. The goal was to give farm women a short vacation at a small cost—only $5.00 for everything.
“Anything but work” was the motto the farmwives would follow during their stay. Husbands and children would be entertained on the last day of each camp, but until then, they were “not allowed.”
Three camps were scheduled: Chautauqua Park in Valley City, where women would have tents; at Park River, the dormitories of the Walsh County Agricultural School were made available; and at Amidon, the old HT Ranch provided a scenic western getaway.
Vacationers would spend their time resting and participating in recreational and enrichment activities, led by extension workers and local people in charge of each camp.
This was the third year of the vacation camps. About 50 farmwives had participated in each of the two camps during the previous two years. Finding the camps successful, organizers replicated the program at a third location. The HT Ranch was a new vacation camp in 1930.
For those women who could get away to participate, the vacation camps must have seemed like quite a good deal.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- Farm Mothers of North Dakota to Enjoy Three Vacation Camps. The Bismarck Tribune, June 2, 1930, Page 2
- Life of Farmer’s Wife was Full of Long Days (and Bread). Ethelyn Pearson, St. Cloud Times, October 19, 2014, Page 4.
