About Us 

EARLY 1900'S

The Group was called The Old Settlers Association.
In the 1930's or 40's this organization disbanded.

1960'S

The Sargent County Historical Society was formed by several county residents.  They stored some of their artifacts at the Sargent County Courthouse.

 1970'S

They set up some donated artifacts at the Sargent County Fair Grounds in the old Catholic Church building. Then into the metal exhibit building at the Fair Grounds.

1987 
They moved all the artifacts into the old Wild Rice Soil Conservation Building on the north edge of Forman.  This was a great building to be in because of the individual offices could be made into display areas. 

1998

The first new building was constructed in front of the old building. This building would house all of the clothing and wooden items, because it was climate controlled to keep the mold and mildew away from these types of items.

Lyla Klefstad had the vision for the new building and it was built by her Son, Steve Klefstad and supplies were purchased from her Brother Stan Lewis's Lumber Yard, Sel Lumber in Forman. She got to see the building when it was finished, however, cancer claimed her before all the artifacts were moved in.

 Without Lyla's vision and Harlan and Lyla's dedication to support local projects the Sargent County Museum as it is today would not exist. So many thanks to the Klefstad Family.

2000

The Second building would replace the old Wild Rice Soil Conservation Building.
This would house the booth displays that would depict the Old Time Town. 
The General Store, The Post Office, The Newspaper Print Shop, Doctor, Dentist, etc

The other half of the building houses the antique buggies, and cars. Also, it displays the original Keller Loaders, which is the forerunners to the Bobcat Skid Steer Loaders of today.

2001

The 1800's Territorial Log Cabin was acquired and moved in from the yard of Bob Cookson of Forman. This Cabin was originally located at Kindred, ND.

The One Room School House was moved in during the Winter from Willey Township. It was used as a School for a few years, but became too small, so the Zion Lutheran Church in the area acquired it and moved it next to the Church in the Country to be used for Sunday School Classes. There are still area residents that remember going to that Sunday School.

 2002

The Third building houses the farm machinery from 1900-1960. it also has a newspaper equipment area of the equipment used in Sargent County years ago.

April 6, 2023 snow took down building #3 at about 1am. 

 Building #4: Land before it was built. 

 Building #4 houses the Horse Drawn Equipment, Railroad items, Land Formations and Rocks. This building is 70 ft. by 172 ft.

Below is the Sargent County Museum as it sits in 2016.

     This organization is one that wishes to preserve the artifacts from the past for those to enjoy in the future.   Without saving these items now, the children of the next generations will never know what their ancestors worked and lived with. 

About 90 percent or better of the items located in the Sargent County Museum, are artifacts that were used by residents right in Sargent County.   This in itself is an amazing fact, let alone the sizes of the buildings that house these items. What other rural area with the small 
number of people can say they have such a tremendous facility.

Then also to be able to say that we have several family collections.  

Such as:

The Keller Loaders, forerunner to present day Bobcat Skid Steer Load

  We have a 3-5 member board plus our 4 officers and a curator/manager.

   We hold meetings from May -October on the first Tuesday of the month at 4:00pm in our meeting area at the Museum. All are welcome to attend and participate in our meetings. Our Board of Directors is the 4 board members and the 4 officers. The treasurer, secretary and 4 board members are elected for 3 year terms.  President and Vice President are elected for a term of one year.

Officers:
President:  Marvin Olofson (Gwinner) 2024      

Vice President: Dylan Ekstrom 2024

Secretary:  Marcy Schutt  (Milnor) 2023 
Treasurer:       Pat Olofson (Gwinner)
Curator/Museum Manager:     Pat Olofson

Board Members:
Jerry Fritzen(Forman) 2024
Al Colemer ( Forman) 2024

Janell McLaen ( Forman) 2021