Central Agricultural Research
Center
100th Anniversary
Montana Agricultural Experiment Station’s research center system will be 100 years old.
By Dave Wichman
The Central Agricultural Research Center (Moccasin) and Western Agricultural Research Center (Corvallis) of the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station will be celebrating their 100th Anniversary in 2007. These one hundred years coincide with the history of farming in Montana’s plains area from sod busting, to crop-fallow to present day no-till continuous crop farming.
The Central Agricultural Research Center (CARC) will be having their Centennial Field Day Celebration on Thursday July 12, 2007. The program is still in the planning stages and we are receptive to input and participation from interested parties. Invitations will be sent out to state and national dignitaries as well as former employees and other people and agencies that have been associated with CARC. One group of people we would like to make a special effort to facilitate their presence is those who attended the 25th, 50th and 75th anniversary celebrations. There may even be someone who tagged along with their parents on a visit to the station in 1907.
The early day Benchland Farmers Picnic Association field days at the CARC had relatively huge crowds compared to current day research tours. Folklore has it that over 6,000 people attended the 1926 field day. Participants traveled by cars, trucks, wagons, and milk train to reach this annual gathering to learn about new advances in agriculture, to visit friends, watch the top two area baseball teams play, compete in picnic games and judge crop displays and livestock. Attendance at this annual event declined with the decline in area population. The Depression and Dust Bowl days depleted the populations of the area communities and farms. Rural populations were further reduced when many of the area young people, who went off to World War II or to work in war factories, pursued other professions elsewhere after the war.
A goal of the CARC Centennial Celebration will be to celebrate Advances in Ag Technology …Past, Present and Future, to provide the opportunity for youth to experience old time picnic athletic competitions (sack races etc) and Ag judging competitions. State and national dignitaries will be invited to share their vision of Agriculture’s future. We hope to have available to 2007 participants a documentary CD with pictures of past celebrations, advances Ag technology, research center employees, and maybe even some short film clips of 50th and 75th centennial celebrations. We have had some Moccasin and Benchland area people indicate they may have some 8 mm film clips from the 50th Anniversary celebrated in 1957.
You (urban and rural Montanans), equipment distributors and manufacturers, Agri-chemical distributors and mfgs., organic agriculturalist, Ag bankers and lending institutions, historians and museums, antique farm equipment clubs, and others interested in past, present and future crops and Ag technology, plus those interested in the history of rural Montana are invited to participate in CARC Centennial Celebration. Anyone interest in contributing to the planning and/or presenting displays is invited to contact CARC at 423-5421 or e-mail dwichman@montana.edu.
1957 Central Ag Research Center 75th Anniversary Field Day. L to R: Pete Boettger, Governor J. Hugo Aronson, MSU-President Roland Renee, and P.V. Cardon
Below 1957 Central Ag Research Center 75th anniversary baseball game and crowd.
