Tough LOVE

FROM BLIZZARDS THAT BURY BUILDINGS TO GRASSHOPPER INFESTATIONS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS, THE KVALE FAMILY HAS SURVIVED AND THRIVED ON THE RUGGED SOUTH DAKOTA PRAIRIE FOR MORE THAN 100 YEARS.

- LISA FOUST PRATER

In the early 1900s, a Norwegian immigrant made his way to northwest South Dakota, homesteading next to a farm family and eventually marrying the farmer's daughter. More than a century later, their grandson still lives on the family land and farms with his son.

Hazel Albright was born in 1892 in Deloit, Iowa. In 1908, after spending a few years in Minnesota, her family loaded a train car with six cows and two horses, then headed west to Lemmon, South Dakota, to stake a claim.

Meanwhile, in the small island village of Leka, Norway, fisherman John Kvale (pronounced "Qualley") had been caught in a terrible storm at sea. He vowed never to fish again, left for America, and homesteaded right next to the Albrights in 1911, about as far from the ocean as he could get.

He regularly called on his neighbors to buy their milk and butter, and to visit their daughter, Hazel, who had staked her own claim on a neighboring half section of land.

The two were married in 1915 and had four children: Harold, Norman, Irene, and Thelma. They raised livestock and planted crops, surviving the drought of the 1930s. Their original home was still standing until a few years ago, but their chicken coop, granary, and windmill remain.

In 1949, Norman brought his bride, Belle, to the ranch, where they raised four children: Richard, Dale, Tim, and Beverly. Harold lived across the road and worked with them.

Norman continued to ranch until a four-wheeler accident at age 90. He lived to be 95. His obituary read, "He had a reputation for making perfect haystacks. He was still bucking up hay long after the neighbors were using balers." Belle passed away earlier this year at age 97.

CREATING THE NEXT GENERATION