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Songs/Poems of Inspiration

Early pioneers to the Fargo area ran into hardships living on the edge of the Great Plains. They took comfort in the fact that most of their neighbors would come to their aid if need be. They also took comfort in a friendly game of cards, some fiddle, and shot or two of the local drink to calm their souls.  It was never easy for anyone, but to make thing just a little bit better they sang songs and wrote about their 
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Shanty Claims

  Shanties were the next standard of living for small-scale farmers in the Red River Valley area. Claim shanties were also a new trend in living structures because they were essentially mobile homes. Because of their mobility, settlers would be able to live for an extended period of time to claim land and move to claim more when they had reached the time limit. Because the railroad reached the settlers on a freq
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Sod Homes

While large-scale farming was the major goal of the Northern Pacific Railroad and its successors, small scale-farming was in full swing. Immigrants and settlers from other parts of the Eastern United States moved westward to claim land along the Northern Pacific way. Many of the smaller farmers who came to the Red River Valley claimed land and built sod homes. Resources in the Red River Valley were sparse on the open
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