Have you ever experienced seeing a place that was important to you being torn down or turned into something else? Maybe you even felt sad that a part of your story was gone. Sometimes, our history can be lost or destroyed in the name of progress. The creation of a National Park may displace families from their ancestral home; the plans for a railroad might be designed to go right through a farm; an old school might be torn down and replaced with a newer, modern school; a shopping center may be built on ancient burial grounds. It might not always be right, but oftentimes people don’t have a choice in the matter. This was almost the case for the house which had been the Holst family homestead, but luckily this time, there was another option - bring it to Heritage Park!

John and Anna Holst lived in this early 20th century house with Anna’s mother, Eisina Tank, for many decades before Anna moved away in 1965. She left the house practically as it was - furnishings intact, clothing in the closet, and dishes on the shelves. The house sat empty for over twenty years, an artifact of another time, until 1989, when plans for the reconstruction of Highway 37 West of Garrison threatened to demolish the Holst homestead. In this pivotal moment where a piece of North Dakota history was almost lost to development, the Holsts’ son, Loren, and his wife, Geniece, decided to move the house to Heritage Park. Without the dedication of the Holst family and the Heritage Park Foundation to restoring and preserving our past, we would know less about where we come from and how we got to where we are today. Like we learned above, not everybody is so fortunate!