When you live in a small town, it doesn’t take much to make the local news. In our case, it’s even easier, because our local newspaper runs a weekly “Yesteryear” column, featuring headlines from milestones years prior. As a history guy, I always seek them out (right up there with the police report and the obituaries), but two in particular have hit close to home recently, both from 1946 – 75 years ago:

Former serviceman Dale Peterson received discharge from the Army and has again taken up work on his turkey farm a short distance from town.

And:

Firemen were called out to the Dale Peterson turkey farm about 6am on Wednesday. A fire of undetermined origin destroyed one of the several large straw sheds housing the turkeys, but most of them had been driven out before the blaze reached any proportion.

I always enjoy reading entrepreneurial stores and the start-up tales of new businesses. Like any good story, founder’s narratives almost always seem to have a time of trial. A challenge that seems insurmountable at the time. I’d have to imagine 1946 felt like one of those pivotal times for my Grandpa Dale. He was finally back from his time in the war, more-than-ready to get back to the farm he’d worked to start just a few years before. Then, amidst the other obstacles in re-starting an idled farm, one of his turkey sheds had burned to the ground.

But, like the entrepreneurial stories that seem so woven into today’s reverence for the “founder mythology,” my Grandpa kept going. And going. In fact, he’d farm for another 40 years and see both reward for his work and more challenges along the way. But none of that could have been known to him in 1946.

And here we are today – still going, and I’m proud to report that many things remain unchanged in those 75 years since. In that spirit, I’d like to personally invite you to visit our farm and turkeys on Saturday, July 10th for the Eat Local Co-op Farm Tour. It’s one of our favorite annual traditions and we hope you can join us for it!