ND Ag Hall Of Fame Inductees

Oliver Dalrymple

Oliver Dalrymple was a large-scale wheat farmer south of Minneapolis, MN before coming to Dakota Territory.  The directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad asked him to help open up the Dakota Territory for agricultural settlement as a means of bringing population and economic development to the area.  Oliver moved to the Casselton area in 1875 and planted his first wheat crop in 1876.  Word soon spread about the 35 bushel per acre wheat crop he raised that first year, and an immigration boom started that lasted for a generation.  Oliver was the first and largest "bonanza farmer" in North Dakota, with the acreage at one time exceeding 100,000 acres, which required thousands of horses and hundreds of men to operate.   The name Dalrymple became known worldwide as "The King of Wheat".  The majority of the state's present farmers are here today because of Oliver's determination to show that this part of the Dakota Territory, which later became North Dakota, contained some of the world's most productive agricultural land.

Year Inducted: 1997