6/13/2010:
The Little Forks Lutheran Church, near Hatton, has been around for more than 130 years. It draws its congregation from both Steele and Traill Counties. On this date in 1952, the members were in the middle of a five-day celebration of the church's 75th Anniversary, an event featuring worship services, special music, a confirmation reunion party, a historical, ecclesiastic pageant, and a Norwegian hymn sung by the oldest member of the congregation.
The church's celebrated history is in part a story of survival, for in 1900 a tornado all but destroyed the church, with the bell tower somehow surviving intact. The church was rebuilt, and the not so little "Little Forks Church" still stands proud on the North Dakota prairie today.
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
Traill County Tribune, June 19, 1952, p.1
Traill County Tribune, June 12, 1952, p.1
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ndtrail2/cemeterylittleforks.htm