Almont North Dakota
1906 Centennial 2006
Warren E. Becklund's Life In Almont
I resided in Almont from 1920 thru 1949 when I moved to Peoria, Illinois to attend Bradley University and the Horological School where I worked as an instructor and received a B. A in Business Administration. Later I moved to California, Florida, Colorado and Kansas. I worked for North American Aviation as the 'chief troubleshooter' for the guidance system used in all the Atlas Missiles in the 1970's and 80's.
Here are some
of the things I remember of my life in Almont.
* When the Depot burned down in 1931 the Walter
Bakkens wrote: “Warren Becklund saved our lives. He saw the flames
and awakened them.” I recall I was still in my model T driving around
town, I saw the flames and got to the depot and blew my horn and kept running
around the structure calling them. They finally awoke and got down stairs
and outside. This happened after 11:00 P.M.
* Hundreds of hours farming for my Dad. this
included spring planting, cultivating in summer and harvesting in fall and
maintenance of all equipment. This started in 1935 and was later done by
my brothers, Wayne, Thornton and Roger.
* Graduated from High School in 1937.
* Served in the CCC’s from august 1937
to Jan 1938.
* Graded roads for the county using the Fordson
Tractor with blade attached. This was from Almont to the County lines.
* Signed up with the county spraying program.
I designed and built several spreaders for poisoned bran. I spread many
100# bags of the poisoned bran to kill grasshoppers and spread poison to
eliminate prairie dogs that had destroyed land. I pulled these with my Model
T’s.
* Did much automobile and other vehicle repairs
including machinery, welding after school and weekends from 1935 to 1937.
* Disassembled, moved and rebuilt a large
metal shed from the “Macky Farm which became my shop in 1938.
* Owned and operated Becklund’s Garage,
Machine Shop where I welded and repaired anything customers wanted fixed.
* Delivered gas, oil and diesel fuel to nearly
every farm in Morton County south of New Salem.
* Leased and operated the Bannor Oil Co from
1947 to 1950. My Dad changed the ‘e’ in the name to an ‘o’ when
I leased it.
* Designed and built a trench digger that
would dig a trench 8 1/2 feet deep. this unit was attached to the power-take-off
of the tractor. I dug several thousand feet of ditches for water lines in
the Almont vicinity. I used this same machine to dig trenches for basement
walls, including Sig Peterson’s new ranch house. This eliminated building ‘forms’ as
the concrete was poured into the trenches and the dirt was dug out after
the concrete cure
* Designed and built a rotary lawn mower from auto
parts, such as a generator from a Model A Ford with bearings, a Model T
Ford 30 x 3 inch rim with tubing for the frame and using a gas engine.
* Constructed and owned at home in Almont
from 1946 to 1950.
• Served in the Air Force
active duty from August 16, 1942 to Dec 14, 1945. I was also in the inactive
reserve from December 18,1945 to September 22, 1948. My last major A. F.
project from Aug. 8th 1945 to Septa 21, 1945 was participating in moving
300 C-54ís from all over the world to Kadina Air Base in Okinawa.
We were to transport the invasion troops to Japan but due to Japanese surrender
we flew the occupational troops to Japan. My last 4 days we experienced
the worst typhoon on record. I have included the A. F. order and also a
log of flights from Washington, DC to Okinawa and return to Hamilton Air
Base in California. (coming in a few days.)
Editors note: Warren sent the following pictures. If anyone can identify those in the pictures please let me know. I know most but not all.
Young People of Almont Mid to Late 1930's
Inside Almont Church Mid to Late 1930's