Chas. Gad. Harvesting. 1915. Flaxton, N.D.

[Minot?]: Fossum & Buck, 1915. Very good.. Panoramic photograph, approximately 6.5 x 14.25 inches. Photo captioned in the negative. Light wear at edges; small, light red ink patch near left edge. Light dust soiling. A striking panorama of a harvesting scene in Flaxton, North Dakota, taken in 1915 and published by the photography studio of Fossum & Buck. The photograph depicts six threshing machines at rest in the midst of a wide wheat field. A group of thirteen laborers pause their activities to stare dourly into the camera, some perched atop their threshers, others with bundles of wheat under their arms. The town of Flaxton, located in the north-central (truncated) part of the state near the border with Canada, was small and isolated even by North Dakota standards in 1915, with a population approaching 350 residents; as of the 2010 census, the population was sixty-six.

We could not locate any record of the Fossum & Buck photography studio in the State Historical Society of North Dakota lists of local photographers or via other sources. A vivid and evidently rare image of rural North Dakota agriculture during the 1910s. (Inventory #: 639)