ND Department of Agriculture Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 13, 2009

LEWIS & CLARK FOUNDATION TAKES OVER CENTENNIAL FARM PROGRAM

BISMARCK – The Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation has taken the North Dakota Centennial Farm Program under its wing.

Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson and David Borlaug, foundation president, have signed a memorandum of understanding transferring the administration and records of the program to the Washburn-based, non-profit organization. The Centennial Farm Program recognizes farms and ranches that have been in the same family for 100 or more years.

“With its emphasis on history and education, the Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation is an ideal home for the Centennial Farm Program,” Johnson said Friday. “The foundation has access to resources unavailable to the department that will allow it to better promote the program as an important historical asset, and with the launch of its new Dakota Institute, the fit becomes perfect.”

“Our foundation is pleased and honored to assume this responsibility, continuing the strong public-private partnership that we enjoy with the state of North Dakota,” Borlaug said. “Centennial Farms will have an ideal home nestled in the growing ‘Our First Farmers’ programs and exhibits at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center.”

Clay Jenkinson, director of the Dakota Institute, is developing an interactive Centennial Farms display that will showcase the hundreds of farm that have received this honor. The display will become a permanent exhibit at the center, while also forming the centerpiece of an exciting new website.

Johnson said it is not known exactly when the program began, but that it was apparently started by the agriculture department. There is no authorizing legislation.

“We in the ag department have long assumed that the program was started in the late 1980s, about the time of the state’s centennial celebration,” he said. “Recently, however, we learned that centennial farm records dating to the early 1980s are on file at the state archives.”

Johnson said the agreement calls for the agriculture commissioner to sign the centennial farm certificates, but that the foundation will administer the program from its offices in Washburn, where new records will be kept. Older records are in the state archives.

Persons interested in obtaining a centennial farm designation for their farm or ranch should contact the Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation at (877) 462-8535 or info@fortmandan.org.

-30-

MEDIA: For more information, please contact David Borlaug at (877) 462-8535 or dborlaug@fortmandan.org.