The story of the Welk family in Strasburg was of great interest to me. My father with his brothers, sisters and his father all homesteaded in and around Fort Rice, in 1902, further up and on the west side of the Missouri River.

Life was hard but everyone who lived there was your friend to help you when needed. Lamps were always alight in the widows of the farm house at night to guide a lost wanderer on the trail. I have driven through Strasburg a few times years ago on Highway 83, on my way to Bismarck to visit relatives. Once I stopped in Stasburg and drove by the Welk Homestead to see it myself. To anyone who has traveled there who had never lived in North Dakota it was probably a lonely experience but for one who was born and raised in North Dakota, it felt like home.