Music in Rutland, North Dakota

 
In 1910 a concert band of 22 musicians would be a modest musical ensemble for any large American city, but for a small town out on the great plains of the Midwest this was a band that a community could be proud of. And for the band of Rutland, North Dakota that admiration surely helped pay for their fancy snow white uniforms and caps. The bass drum advertises their location and offers a year, 1910, which was probably when the band was first established. 

The Rutland Band stands outside a house that is nicely embellished with "gingerbread" trim around the front porch. The group is a mix of younger men with a handful of boys in a typical wind band instrumentation of clarinets and saxophones (including one baritone sax player in a dark uniform, maybe a ringer from another town) with cornets, trombones, tubas and drums. One cornetist, possibly the oldest man of the group, stands at backrow center with epaulets and braided cord rosettes attached to his tunic which, I think, singles him out as the bandleader. 

Rutland is in Sargent County, North Dakota with an area of 0.38 square miles (0.98 km2). located in the southeast region of the state near the border with South Dakota. It calls itself a city even though its current population is just 162 residents but in 1910 it could boast of 224 citizens of which, it seems, 10% could play a musical instrument in the band. My guess, based on other similar postcard photos of town bands, is that this picture was taken a few years later than 1910, perhaps 1912-18. 

This postcard came from a dealer who offered a few other photo views of Rutland which I also acquired. After its band, I believe the townsfolk of Rutland took special pride in their public school.  

This handsome two-story structure with clapboard siding, faux columns, and rows of tall windows sits on a large lot that has no trees or adjacent building so it looks brand new to me. I would bet that its grand opening was an occasion for the Rutland Band to provide musical entertainment too. My estimate is that the school had at least four classrooms with maybe a head teacher's office, an assembly room, and a basement too. A large school bell sits left of the entrance. The photo is identified by a photographer's caption and above the center window is the name, Rutland inside the year 19_11. 

Rutland was, and still is, primarily a farming and ranching community though there was other work available with the Northern Pacific Railroad Company whose tracks pass next to the town. The streets of Rutland are neatly laid out east/west and north/south but in 1910 they were not paved. In that era most people used horse drawn wagons though apparently there were a few automobiles to attract  the attention of the town's children.

These images were cropped from a postcard marked by the photographer: Main Street, Rutland  N. Dak. Like the band's photo, these postcards were never posted and are unmarked. Though the town had a small population, Sargent County had 9,202 residents in 1910, a 52.4% increase from the census population in 1900, and very close to its peak number in 1920 of 9,655. The current population has declined to a third of that at 3,795. 

Despite the rustic road surface, the town looks active with several commercial shops along the street. The original photo has faded to a bleached coffee color, but through the magic of digital technology I was able to restore the contrast. 

I can't be absolutely certain of the camera's direction in the photo but there is a large building on the right, just beyond the automobile and the kids, that bears a resemblance to a building in present-day Rutland. Courtesy of Google Maps, here is a similar view looking north on Main Street, (now called 1st Street). The large building has a sign: RUTLAND, and is the location of the city offices.

Rutland, North Dakota, 1st Street, looking north
Source: Google Maps 2012

A second postcard shows a different view of Rutland's Main Street and the photo's contrast has been better preserved. On one side there is a two-story building, the First State Bank. Just next to it is Swiden's Pool Hall and a small hotel. Looking at the condition of the street surface you have to wonder at the Rutland Band's choice of white uniforms.

On the other side of the street are more retail/trade shops. One sign reads: Columbia Restaurant. Hanging over the broad street is an electric lamp which must have been a wonder for the older folks who remembered the town when it was first founded in 1887. It's also interesting to see a few trees along the street which were surely planted by the residents. 

The full view presents a broad boulevard which was common in Midwest towns out on the prairie, probably because the space favored horse-drawn wagons. A century later Rutland still has all its businesses along the same street and I found a building that matched the old bank. The siding and windows have been covered but the building's shape retains the same unusual sliced corner which was once its entrance. It is now the offices of an insurance broker. If I'm correct the large building on the right in the first photo is on the left in this photo just beyond the hotel. It looks like it is under construction as the windows are not installed. In the Google street view this corresponds to Rutland's 1st Street looking south.

Rutland, North Dakota, 1st Street, looking south
Source: Google Maps 2021

Recently the town of Rutland produced a promotional video for YouTube. A drone camera flies around the water tower to give us a bird's eye view of its city center.

Scattered around the fields beyond the town's streets are several small ponds. They are actually Prairie Potholes, the geological remains of the Wisconsin glaciation which ended about 10,000 years ago. This vast icesheet covered a region northward from Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas and into Canada's Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta provinces. As the ice melted it left shallow depressions called glacial potholes or kettle lakes. These holes fill with water in the spring and become temporary or semi-permanent wetlands, an important natural environment for migrating waterfowl and other native animal species and plants. The satellite view of Rutland gives a better idea of how these formations cover this region of North Dakota. The state has over 400 lakes but thousands and thousands of potholes. 

Satellite View of Rutland, North Dakota
Source: Google Maps

Every year on the first Sunday of October Rutland celebrates its Scandinavian heritage with Uffda Day when the city hosts various vendors, craft artists, a vintage car show and a dinner with Scandinavian specialties. And of course there is a parade. Here's another clever drone view of Uffda Day 2023. Uff da is "a Scandinavian exclamation or interjection used to express dismay, typically upon hearing bad news," frequently translated to "I am overwhelmed."

Finally the most famous thing that people of Rutland are proud of is that the city holds the Guinness world record for the largest hamburger. The burger weighed 3,591 pounds and was "cooked" on 26 June 1982 in a huge iron pan. A crowd of 8,000 to 10,000 people came see it prepared and share a taste of the giant burger. The skillet was erected in the city's recreation park to commemorate the event.

Frying Pan used for a world record hamburger
cooked in Rutland, North Dakota
26 June 1982
Source: Wikipedia

But what I want to know is,
did a band play for this giant hamburger cookout? 

What music would be appropriated for such a feast?
And did the Pride of the Prairies band
wear white uniforms? 

With so much ketchup and mustard? 

I expect not.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where everyone always looks both ways.