Pinterest Board Accompanies historical novel, Driftless

Driftless is a historical novel. Just for fun, I have designed a Pinterest Board as a companion to the book. My Pinterest board reflects many of the author's memories of growing up on a family dairy farm within the Driftless Region of southeastern Minnesota. Those memories informed the writing of portions of this story.

Driftless is set on a family dairy farm in 1948. The family name (Fjeld) and the name of its exact location (Hawk Ridge) are all fictitious.  Spring Grove, however, would have been the actual hometown for the families living on Hawk Ridge. That town and all other geographical place names referenced in Driftless are real places. Spring Grove was settled primarily by Lutheran Norwegian immigrants in the mid to late1800's. Like the author's own family of origin, the Fjeld family milks Brown Swiss cows; they raise pigs and chickens and they use a team of draft horses to farm the land. They also have a very smart herding dog named Teddy. Children raised on Hawk Ridge roam the farm and play in the wooded bluffs. They attend a one-room clapboard country schoolhouse within walking distance, as did the author. And like the author's family, the farm families on Hawk Ridge attend the rural Lutheran church a few miles away. 

As was true in 1948, people in need of psychiatric hospitalization were taken to Rochester State Hospital in Rochester. Many of them lived out the rest of their lives in the state hospital. Also true was that the orphanage in Owatonna, Minnesota was at one time, the third-largest orphanage in the U.S. The author has attempted to be true to the practices of the day within both state institutions. Neither of them exist today.

Minnesota is across the Mississippi River. Taken from Wisconsin.