Bicentennial Story #45-Richardton-Spring Valley

Bicentennial Story #45-Richardton-Spring Valley

Description of the naming and creation of Richardton.

7/2/1975

4/14/1976

Father Louis Pfaller
Jack Hjort

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mp3

audio reel, analog, 1/4 inch polyester tape

English

BS-045

Richardton, ND

Copyright Stark County Historical Society and Dickinson Museum Center

Richardton once had a beautiful name. From the numerous springs on its northern slope, the village was called SPRING VALLEY in 1881, but within a year commercialism moved in to expunge the poetic name. In the fall of 1882 agents of the Hamburg-American Steamship Company of New York laid out the town and put up a few flimsy buildings in order to attract settlers from Germany. They named the town for C.B. Richard, head of the passenger agents for this transportation company. Another record shows that it was named for Oscar L. Richard, the resident of the firm and the original townsite owner. Personally, I wish it had remained Spring Valley.

This is Bicentennial Story No. 45, prepared by Father Louis Pfaller, for the Stark County Historical Society, Jack Hjorte at the piano.

Williams, Origins of N.D. Place Names, 295

Sound recordings

1:07

128kbps

1970 1979

Bicentennial tape #3, Bicentennial stories 23-45