4/26/2011:
Fargo Oak Grove Lutheran School has a long history, dating back to its founding in 1906. And Oak Grove has a beautiful setting, with its five-acre campus facing the Red River with its murmuring waters. But riverside beauty brings with it the woeful hazard of spring flooding.
1969 brought the worst flood Fargo had experienced since the legendary Great Flood of 1897. A deep winter snowfall and then heavy rains in April created torrential floodwaters all along the Red River. The monster flood threatened Oak Grove, and the school’s administrators sent out a cry for help.
Answering that cry was Jens Tennefos, age 39, president of Tennefos Construction Company. He had learned how to handle almost any big job, having helped build Interstates 94 and 29. His company had participated in almost every major public project involving heavy construction in North Dakota, including the Garrison Dam and canal; the Grand Forks and Minot Air Force bases; and the Nekoma Missile Site. Tennefos had the know-how to come to the rescue of Oak Grove School, donating the use of a bulldozer and a diesel backhoe. Working non-stop, Tennefos’s heavy equipment operators built a one thousand foot long ring dike to encircle and protect Oak Grove.
Oak Grove students were released from classes as the flood fight began. The boys’ basketball team won the Class B state championship while the flood waters were rising back home and the team returned to help patrol the dike. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the students took turns on the dike, watching for leaks or weak spots. One of those on patrol was Jen Tennefos’s son, Dan, then a ninth grader.
When the Red River’s floodwaters finally receded, the volunteers could take a breather, for the floodwalls had held.
The Fargo Forum printed a special 1969 flood edition on this date; praising the efforts of young and old alike in fighting the waters with sandbags, muscle and backhoes.
Oak Grove Lutheran School faced another flood in July 1975, and again Jens Tennefos came to the rescue with his heavy equipment. But there was no escape for the school in 1997 when the floodwaters broke through and Oak Grove suffered massive damages.
On this date, we remember the Red River floods and those who fought them, like Jens Tennefos of Fargo. Mr. Tennefos passed away in 2008, at age 78, leaving a legacy as a builder, family man, and rescuer of schools.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck, History Department, MSU Moorhead.
Sources: “The Snow Came—And Flooding Had to Follow,” Fargo Forum, April 26, 1969, Special Edition, p. T-6, T-2, T-18.
“Jens and Jeanne Tennefos,” Howard Binford’s Guide [Fargo, ND], vol. 12, no. 11, May 1980, p. 21-34.
Hiram M. Drache, A Century in the Park: Oak Grove Lutheran School; A Journey of Faith (Lakeville, MN: Hobar Publications, 2006), p. 18, 259-261.
“Red Hats Are Coming,” Fargo Forum, April 20, 1969, p. B1.
“Red River Blues Keep Getting Worse; Dike Blowout at Fargo Floods School Campus and Most of Neighborhood,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 18, 1997, p. A20.
“Fargo Plans Mop-Up as Red River Slowly Recedes,” Minneapolis Tribune, April 24, 1997, p. A17.