Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Memories of loved ones past are too often fleeting treasures. In frontier times, even the wooden crosses atop their resting places were fragile; most have been erased by time.

Not so, the granite memorials that mark their graves today. When Dakota Monument arrived in Fargo just after the birth of the Model T Ford, the cemeteries where families honor their ancestors began to take on the now-familiar character – displaying granite monuments where families gather to remember.

Dakota Monument has been carving and installing monuments in cemeteries across North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota since 1906, when the current generation’s great-great-grandfather fashioned his first headstones in a shop in Crookston. Five years later, the family business set down its roots in Fargo – the first to inscribe memories on the stone tablets marking the resting places of the dead, and still the largest in the region.

Streetcars and horse-drawn wagons still ran down Broadway when founders O.C. Anderson and his uncle, H.F. Nesne, arrived in Fargo in 1911. “They were probably the first monument makers in this part of the country,” Scott Anderson says. “They located on Front Street next to the NP Railroad because the granite was transported by train. The locomotives would stop just outside their back door to drop off the loads from the quarry at Cold Spring, Minnesota.” Five decades later, with over-the-road transportation more common, the company moved to its present location at the corner of South University Drive and 24th Avenue South.

Scott and his two older brothers, Seth and Dustin, now handle most of Dakota Monument’s day-to-day business, along with vice president and sales manager Tyler Francis. The brothers’ father, David Anderson, is currently its president.

While Dakota Monument’s showroom displays dozens of styles of monuments, every marker created and installed by the company is created to order from start to finish. Families choose the size, shape and subtle shade of granite that will memorialize their loved one.

Each is ordered directly from the quarry where it’s mined, cut and polished. Most often, that’s Coldspring near St. Cloud, Minnesota. But a number of other suppliers provide other choices from the granite palette of 20 colors. One of the most famous is the deep reddish Rustic Mahogany from Milbank, South Dakota. Lake Superior Green is quarried in Isabella, Minnesota, and Morning Rose in Vermillion Bay, Ontario. Though rarely chosen today because it weathers badly over the years, white marble is cut from the ground in Tate, Georgia. Other slabs are sourced from around the world, primarily China, India … and Norway.

Trucks deliver the pre-cut, polished blank monuments to the company’s south Fargo workshop to be fashioned to fit the family’s vision. The Dakota design crew carries out their wishes, often including serpentine scrolls, flowers, family heritage or religious symbols along with dates of birth and death.

Those symbols vary, though, depending on where the graves are located. When Scott worked in Dakota’s sales office in Mandan, North Dakota, he says, “Families seemed to favor cows, horses, windmills and tractors. Here in Fargo, we see more of a mixture.” Among them:distinctive crosses, sheaves of wheat, farm imagery, lakeside scenes and professional emblems.

Some designs are considerably more individualistic. Travis points to one local monument incised with the image of a motorcycle. Another recent order will feature a sock monkey, reflecting the wishes of the woman who has made thousands of the little creatures. A memorable stone features a lifesized Rottweiler. Still another honors a man with a passion for baseball. Working with the
gentleman’s wife, they designed a three-dimensional bat, ball and catcher’s mitt that adjoin the vertical monument.

“When a family first meets with us, we always ask a lot of questions,” Scott notes. “What kind of a story would you like the memorial to tell? We want to find out what’s most important to the customer and go on from there.”

Dakota Monument’s two graphic artists are charged with carrying out the family’s vision. Then a stencil is made, and an enormous laser etches it on the stone. Hand engraving may also be used for deeper, more durable inscriptions.

It can take from three months to six or more to finish fabricating each monument. Then the company’s crews install it in the cemetery. In the past, the markers were set on concrete foundations. Now, Travis says, they prefer to place granite beneath them; concrete too often develops cracks that mandate replacement.

Changes in funeral traditions have shaped the services and products the company offers its customers. Many cemeteries now limit markers to flat slabs at ground level. “If they permit vertical monuments, we do always recommend them,” Travis observes. “They’re more visible and offer the space for more of a message.”

The growing number of cremations, too, has brought about changes. Families who choose to bury their cremains, rather than enclose them in a columbarium, can select monuments that include secure niches for one or two urns. Some are built into granite benches. Others resemble a vertical monument.

Part of the Anderson family’s long tradition, says Scott, is the service their company provides before, during and even long after placing a monument on a loved one’s grave. “The soil in our area is unstable, so we’re often asked to level the ground and straighten monuments,” he says. “We engrave names and dates on markers and monuments already placed in the cemetery. We can clean and restore very old ones that are showing their age.”

Travis adds, “Our goal is always to be here for our customers in their time of need. People come to us in the most difficult of times. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of time. This isn’t something you do every day.

“We move forward at their pace, and educate them as best we can along the way. Ultimately, we’re going to help them create a product that will be a testament to their loved one’s life.”