Chapter 4
Number One Hard Wheat

The people selling land in the fertile Red River Valley coined the name "bonanza farm" to imply a lucky strike, a get rich quick opportunity for those willing to take a chance. One reason for this was the world-wide demand for number one hard spring wheat. A spring wheat perfectly suited for eastern Dakota. Its hardness and high protein content made for the finest bread and pastry products the world had seen. However, until the 1870's millers had problems with this spring wheat due to its hardness. It had a reputation of ruining the rollers used to grind wheat. Millers discounted the price of hard number one, making it a wheat not worth growing.

Then one year in the Minnesota town of St. Anthony Falls, a process of grinding wheat with ceramic rollers was developed. It was called "The Minnesota Process" and these mills had no problem grinding the harder spring wheat grain. Therefore, mills using this process could give hard number one a premium price. Suddenly spring wheat became highly coveted, along with land which could grow it.

Skyrocketing prices for hard number one spring wheat and word of Oliver Dalrymple's farming success quickly led to the ushering in of many other bonanza farm operations throughout the Red River Valley. The farms were a marketing bonanza for the railroad and the region. Stories of the giant farms of Dakota spread across the world. The 1880's saw people swarming into northern Dakota. Papers dubbed it "The Great Dakota Boom". During this time and on to the turn of the century, farms of thousands of acres in size sprouted throughout the valley region.