By Violet Wright and Gunnar Gregory
For the 2025 Archeology Methods and Lab class, our class excavated the site of Carleton’s Olin farm. Our project focused on the history of the livestock on the Olin and Paar farms, but we grouped them together under the general name of “the Carleton farm.” Carleton’s livestock operations on campus began in the mid 1910s and continued until the mid ‘60s. Though our project is almost exclusively based on archival research, we as a class found some interesting artifacts related to the college’s livestock. One of said artifacts were the aluminum milk caps that our lab was able to uncover during excavation. These caps were labeled by Campbell Dairy, the dairy processor that was contracted by the school during the ‘30s and onwards.
Our project’s primary work is shown through the timeline that was put together using archival research. We spent multiple hours in the Carleton archives looking through records of purchase, certifications, and correspondences to put together a cohesive timeline of the Carleton farm’s livestock. Most of our research focused on the bovine and porcine residents of the campus. Carleton housed various other species such as horses and poultry, but few if any records reported on such livestock. We also compiled data on the populations of cows, pigs, and chickens throughout the years and charted them within the timeline. The research for livestock populations did present itself with a large issue, that was rather uniform during research: our primary sources left many gaps in knowledge that couldn’t be filled through research. The major example of this is how pig and chicken populations were only reported a handful of times throughout the operations. The last research we conducted was to go through the University of Minnesota’s archives to A) put Carleton’s operations in reference to the general dairy industry’s and B) compare the cow-to-student ratios of the two schools.
The making of this project proved to be immensely valuable to us. During this process of creating our project we were able to learn many interesting facts about our schools’ history. We were also able to learn about the process of archival research and data collection and its possible shortcomings. The depth of the College’s farms’ history has been mesmerizing, a history in which we can reference the college as it is today. After all, we are in the town of cows, colleges, and contentment.
Sources Cited
“110 Holsteins, Fifty Foot Track Manure Spreader To Highlight Carl Farm Auction.” The Carletonian (Northfield, MN), May 20, 1964. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
“450 Acres Of Grain, Corn, Hay Help Feed College Farm Stock.” The Carletonian (Northfield, MN), February 7, 1934. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
“Carleton College Farm Furnishes Dorms’ Milk.” The Carletonian (Northfield, MN), November 4, 1950. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
“College Farm Provides Sunday Chicken Dinner.” The Carletonian (Northfield, MN), October 3, 1923. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
“College Farm Will Sell Prize Cattle.” The Carletonian (Northfield, Minnesota), October 20, 1926. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
“Farm Wins Prizes At County Fair.” The Carletonian (Northfield, MN), October 12, 1927. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
Ferrin, E.F. E.F. Ferrin to G.F. Thorkelson. June 15, 1953, St. Paul, MN. Carleton College Archives, Northfield, MN.
Fox, Scott. “WWI Time Of Changes Around Carleton Campus.” The Carletonian (Northfield, MN). October 17, 2008. https://thecarletonian.com/1198/news
Gochnauer, O.B. O.B. Gochnauer to Bruce Pollock. February 11, 1955, St. Paul, MN. Carleton College Archives, Northfield, MN.
Gochnauer, O.B. O.B. Gochnauer to Bruce Pollock. February 18, 1955, St. Paul, MN. Carleton College Archives, Northfield, MN.
“Interesting Test At College Farm.” The Carletonian (Northfield, Minnesota), December 19, 1916. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
“Many Improvements For College Farm.” The Carletonian (Northfield, MN), October 23, 1917. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
“New Buildings On Farm.” The Carletonian (Northfield, Minnesota), November 9, 1915. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
“New Projects To Be Started At Olin Farm.” The Carletonian (Northfield, Minnesota), December 14, 1921. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
““PhD’s” To Ecuador.” The Carletonian (Northfield, MN), December 8, 1945. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
Pollock, Bruce. Bruce Pollock to Clarence R. Skaar, Fred Elfeman, Charlotte Barrett, Margaret A. Bailey. May 31, 1951, Northfield, MN. Carleton College Archives, Northfield, MN.
Pollock, Bruce. Bruce Pollock to O.B. Gochnauer. February 16, 1955, Northfield, MN. Carleton College Archives, Northfield, MN.
Redalen, Elton R. “Future of the Dairy Industry in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest.” In The Minnesota Dairy Health Conference 1995. May 24, 1995. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/118798.
Seddig, Bob. “Highlight Carleton Farm Dairying, Student Capers.” The Carletonian (Northfield, MN), April 11, 1962. Carleton College Archives, edu.arcasearch.com/usmncar/.
Thorkelson, G.F. G.F. Thorkelson to Bruce Pollock. “In re Garbage feeding.” April 21, 1953, Rochester, MN. Carleton College Archives, Northfield, MN.
Thorkelson, G.F. G.F. Thorkelson to Bruce Pollock. June 5, 1953, Rochester, MN. Carleton College Archives, Northfield, MN.
Thorkelson, G.F. G.F. Thorkelson to E.F. Ferrin. June 11, 1953, Rochester, MN. Carleton College Archives, Northfield, MN.
Thorkelson, G.F. G.F. Thorkelson to Tom Wall. June 23, 1953, Rochester, MN. Carleton College Archives, Northfield, MN.
University of Minnesota North Central Experiment Station. “The North Central Experiment Station: The First 100 Years.” 1996. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/176208.