Heading Home(stead)

The original homestead from 1919, still standing in 2021.

This week, our family made a pilgrimage to the Rustebakke homestead near Scobey, Montana. The homestead claim was staked in 1919, and the official land patent granted in 1921. This visit marks the centennial celebration of our family’s farming tradition there. We named Rust Hill Ranch in eastern Minnesota in honor of this special place (Rustebakke means “rust hill” in Norwegian).

Spending time in the most rural county in the lower 48 states reminds us how much has changed in the last 50 years. The demise of rural America was sudden, yet almost imperceptible. The 1970s brought the infamous, “Get big or get out,” mantra from Richard Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz. And no one really noticed.

Most got out.

As small family farms were consolidated, and USDA subsidies promoted mega corn & soy operations, the agricultural landscape was transformed into monocrop deserts. But the economic landscape of these small towns transformed even more dramatically as local, independent businesses collapsed due to population decline and the dominance of corporate chains.

But the tide is starting to turn. Thousands of families are starting to pursue true stewardship of the land. With homage to the displaced homesteaders of the past, these new, modern-day pioneers just might have created the new mantra, “Get out [of the city], and get going.”

See you on the land.