Numedahl Traditional Cache
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Size: 
(regular)
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Easy terrain, road within 500 feet of cach.
Cach placed by Boy Scout Troop 1.
Numedahl
(Exerts from a book by Cory R. Lien and from family history.)
Numedahl, because of its location, has been the most isolated of all communities in Cavalier County. Most county residents have never been there; the roads are steep and in wet weather are not for the faint hearted! Those who have gone in good weather have enjoyed the view coming and going as well as the view when you finally reach “The top of the world!” You can well understand why the early settlers, fresh from the fjords and mountains of Norway, found this a place they could call home.
The store and post office have been gone a lone time now and the church is no longer used for services. Most of the original pioneers are now resting in a shady roadside cemetery. But Numedahl is not actually a ghost town; it never was actually a town, but a community with a slightly different environment and history than the rest of the county.
Written by Ms. Esther N Anderson 1979
Numedahl, N. Dak. is named after Numedahl, Norway. Numedahl, Norway is a beautiful valley that lies between Bergen and Oslo in southern Norway. It is about sixty miles long with the towns of Geilo and Kongsberg at the ends. The river Lagen runs through the middle, with gentle lofty mountains on both sides and storybook farms suspended on the mountainside. The mountainsides were so steep all work was done by hand, and the farmers wore cleats to keep from sliding down the hills.
Numedahl means “beautiful valley between hills.”
Andrew Fjeld was the first Norwegian immigrant to settle in the area. Mr. Fjeld arrived in the summer of 1888, and shortly later that year Knute Frogne, followed by Bjorn Nielson Halvorsplads and Erich Fulsaas in 1891, Lars Lien, Severt Fonnebo, and Tosten Fonnebo in 1892, and Thom Thompson in 1893.
Halvor Halvorson homesteaded at Numedahl in 1892 and in 1898 started a general store and post office. In 1903 he sold the business to H.B. Nelson (whom had homesteaded here in 1893). Halvor Nelson ran the post office until it closed in 1926 and the store until it closed in the early 1940’s. Both stores served U.S. and Canadian customers.
The church congregation was officially established in 1896 with Harold Vang as pastor until 1899. Rev. G.A. Sovde served from 1899 to 1906. In 1906, Rev. Olaf Olson was called to serve Big Pembina, Mona, Numedahl, and Vang congregations (only Big Pembina church is still active). For his yearly salary, Pig Pembina was to contribute $200, Numedahl $100, and Vang $100 per year, plus oats and hay for his horses.
On Dec. 27, 1911, the congregation was incorporated as the Nore Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation. In 1912, land was donated for the church. In 1914 and 1915 members of the congregation purchased the Elk Creek School in the 1-6 Manitoba area for the cost of $500. The building was moved across the line by steam engine. It had been built in 1900. The kitchen was added in 1942. The church was restored between 1997-2000 by the Numedahl community.
The first Numedahl School was built in 1895. The first teacher was Miss Blanche Charrier. The first school term was five months with fifteen students. The school was closed in 1921 and mobbed to be used as a blacksmith shop (it is still standing). A new school was built in 1921. It closed in the early 1950s and Numedahl became part of the Walhalla school district.
Numedahl once had a baseball team (1910-1912) called the Numedahl Nine. They often played Canadian teams because crossing the border was easy to cross in those days. “It was like going across the street.”
This is a brief history of Numedahl, North Dakota. The people who live here are mostly friendly and a good share of the land is still privately owned. Please respect both.
The following Boy Scouts of Troop 1 Grand Forks, ND, started this site.
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