Object Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Butter Churn |
Object Name |
Churn |
Description |
Ceramic cream color with blue stripes butter churn with wooden plunger from Carlson Ranch near Bernice; wood plunger is not original. |
Provenance |
Carlson Family History provided by Sherry Carlson: Ranch house and some properties were bought in 1917 by Charles August Carlson (Gary's grandfather) and his great-grandfather, Oscar Carlson. Oscar came from Sweden with his wife Matilda and was in the Basin area in the early 1890s. Charles was born in 1891. He married Edna Williamson who was raised in the Bernice area. Charles and Edna had two children, William (Bill) Charles Carlson (born in 1920) and Bernice Carlson (born in 1922). In the following decades, Charles bought adjoining lands, some from the Sockerson family who owned a store in Basin. The main industry for the ranch was timber sales. They had a Scandinavian crew of cutters who lived in the mountains nearby. Carlsons sold timber to the mines in Butte and later made charcoal for the Anaconda mill in Great Falls until around 1950. They also had cattle. Interesting note, in 1917 there was a terrible winter in the area. Ranchers had no grazing, so some lost most of their cattle. Some ranchers went to the Dakotas and cut swamp grass and shipped it back home for cattle feed. The house by the Bernice highway exit, was the original house of Oscar and Matilda. Their son Albert and wife Marguerite later owned the house. Marguerite sold it to Davidson and now Karen Davidson and Steve Olson own the house and some land behind it. |
Collection |
Carlson Ranch |
Caption |
Butter churn from Carlson Ranch near Bernice. |
People |
Carlson |
Used |
Carlson Ranch |
Catalog Number |
2020.22.1 |
Search Terms |
Butter churn Dairy Ranch |
Subjects |
Bernice Carlson Ranch |