Mapleton Township in West Fargo in Cass County, North Dakota — The American Midwest (Upper Plains)
Checkered Years House
Photographed by Mark Parker, June 27, 2025
1. Checkered Years House Marker
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Arts, Letters, Music • Settlements & Settlers • Women.
Location. 46° 52.574′ N, 96° 55.639′ W. Marker is in West Fargo, North Dakota, in Cass County. It is in Mapleton Township. It can be reached from Main Avenue West (U.S. 10) near 21st Street Northwest, on the right when traveling east. Checkered Years House is part of Bonanzaville USA Historic Museum and Pioneer Village. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1351 Main Avenue W, West Fargo ND 58078, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in the Red River Valley and in Greater Fargo Area. It is also in the American Lewis & Clark Corridor, on the prairies, and on the Northern Plains. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically,
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Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Hagen House (a few steps from this marker); Land Office Bank (a few steps from this marker); a different marker also named Land Office Bank (a few steps from this marker); Buffalo Bandstand (within shouting distance of this marker); Furnberg Store (within shouting distance of this marker); Dobrinz School (within shouting distance of this marker); Cass County District Court (within shouting distance of this marker); Cass County Courthouse (within shouting distance of this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in West Fargo.
Also see . . .
1. The Checkered Years: A Bonanza Farm Diary, 1884-88.
Mary Dodge Woodward, a fifty-six-year-old widow, moved from Wisconsin with her two grown sons and a daughter to a 1,500-acre bonanza wheat farm in Dakota Territory's Red River valley in 1882. For five years she recorded the yearly farm cycle of plowing and harvesting as well as the frustrations of gardening and raising chickens. the phenomenon of mirages(Submitted on July 16, 2025, by Mark Parker of Hickory, North Carolina.)on the plains, the awesome blizzard of 1888, her reliance on her family, and her close relationship with her daughter. She noted "blots, mistakes, joys, and sorrows" in her "old friend."Photographed by Mark Parker, June 27, 20252. Checkered Years House and MarkerNote: it appears a marker stand is in place either for a marker to be added in the future or a marker that was removed.
2. Mary Dodge Woodward.
Mary Dodge Woodward is a woman who lived and worked on a bonanza farm in Cass County from 1884-1888. Bonanza farms cropped up largely in the Dakota territory after the Northern Pacific Railroad sold huge acreages of land to their investors for extremely low prices to cover their debts...(Submitted on July 16, 2025, by Mark Parker of Hickory, North Carolina.)
Mary moved from Kingston, Wisconsin, to the farm with her three youngest children, Walter, Fred, and Katie, in 1882. Walter was asked by Marys cousin to manage the relatively small fifteen hundred-acre farm. With her husband gone, Mary relied on her children, her dog Roxy, and her diary for company. Mary and her family eventually moved back home to Wisconsin in the spring of 1889 where she died on December 25th, 1890. Her diary, The Checkered Years was later published and gives a great insight into the lives of women on the prairie in the late 1800s.
Credits. This page was last revised on July 19, 2025. It was originally submitted on July 16, 2025, by Mark Parker of Hickory, North Carolina. This page has been viewed 105 times since then and 15 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on July 16, 2025, by Mark Parker of Hickory, North Carolina. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.
