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Cavalier, ND by Jessie Veeder Scofield
In a charming café with a big picture window looking out over Cavalier’s Main Street, three women gathered for lunch as the spring sun shone through the glass and unto their folded hands. They gathered to talk about the connection they have to a place they all call home, new faces in town, homemade bread, gardening and plans to celebrate their rich heritage with community events. Events like the 10th Annual Machinery Show and the inaugural, weekly Farmers Market—an event that Zelda Hartje, Pembina County Historical Society administrator, thinks will be invaluable to this hard-working agricultural town. “We don’t take as much time as we should to play around here,” said Zelda. Evidence of that work ethic played out on the other side of the window as trucks and farm equipment slowly rolled through town and out to the fields. Talk quickly turned to farming as Becky Ratchenski, a public librarian, explained how she moved to the community 24 years ago to work and raise her children on her husband’s family farm. Pat Morrison a Cavalier native, helps run a local implement dealership alongside her husband. And Zelda, a teacher, history buff and farmer herself greeted familiar faces as they entered the cafe while she explained that her community was home to the first mill stones. That’s life in small-town Cavalier and these are its women—diverse, knowledgeable, and welcoming. Tucked between the borders of Minnesota and Canada, Cavalier’s population is just over 1,300. The city serves as Pembina County’s seat, a region that was home to the first farm in North Dakota and a piece of trivia that proves the community’s history is as rich as the soil of the Red River Valley it’s nestled in. And the area continues to produce diversified agribusiness men and women as successfully as it raises crops, because in Pembina County farming is a family affair. With operations boasting 2,000 to 5,000 acres or more of cropland, it takes the knowledge and assistance of several generations to run the business of harvesting crops like potatoes, beets, soybeans, corn and grains. Dorothy LaCoste is one of the women at the heart of it, having spent her childhood helping to raise dairy cattle, hogs and harvest hay. She went on to marry in 1956 and soon after purchased 400 acres of land near the small village of Leroy, 16 miles northwest of Cavalier. With an additional 1,600 acres of rented land, LaCoste, along with her husband and two daughters, raised wheat, soybeans, pinto beans, hogs, chickens, corn and even Christmas trees while LaCoste maintained a full-time teaching job in the surrounding communities. And LaCoste, with her small frame and determined attitude, has run the tractor and combine from day one, even when she was eight months pregnant with her second daughter. “No one held my hand; I had to figure it out myself,” said LaCoste . “But farming is just something I’ve always loved.” Sara Hinkle wouldn’t say the vision she had for her future mirrored LaCoste’s, but she has come to share the same knowledge and passion for the business. Born and raised in Cavalier, Hinkle planned to pursue a business degree out-of-state, but during her senior year of high school she met the man, farmer and young entrepreneur who would become her husband and her plans changed.
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