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Digital technology enhanced this tiny photograph found today in Erling's memorabilia. The farm equipment had been
lined up specially for this rare photo, (note the binder in the background) reflecting a pride of ownership. |
During his teen years (1925-1935) Stan’s father, Erling Rolfsrud, operated this McCormick-Deering iron-lugged tractor at home and on fields several miles from home. “I would drive to the distant fields in an old Model T truck (which had a home-made cab of wood) and work there all day,” he wrote on the back of this photo, “bringing along a lunch for mid-day. We first had a 10-20 horsepower tractor, then later a 15-30 horsepower. I was alone all day with the plowing. Seldom the sight of another human. No radio or communication of any kind.”
What Stan’s father could not know, of course, was that he was tilling soil that covered the Bakken Shale, which has since brought untold wealth to western North Dakota. He died in 1994, long before fracking technology made possible the full development of these oil fields.
