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Our History
In 1876 Peter Oleson, an immigrant from Denmark, purchased native prairie land for $20.00 per acre at 10% interest. In 1919 his son Edward Oleson inherited 1/9 of his parents estate, which included the original family farm. In 1967 Clifford Oleson purchased the farm from his mother for $324.00 per acre at 6% interest.
In 1969 Clifford became disheartened with the traditional agriculture business. With the advise of an uncle he diversified the business by growing a few acres of cultured sod. Francis Tinker, with Northrup King, supplied the much needed knowledge for this new endeavor. Mr. Tinker said, "Why some day your whole farm will be in sod." He was right.
In 1976 Cliff's son, Jack, incorporated his three-year-old sod installation business with the sod production business. At about this time, Jerry and Doris Eckerman quit their full-time jobs and started Eckerman Sodding Services. For 25 years the Eckerman's were the number one sod installers in the Cedar Valley. One thing unusual about their business was that installing sod was their only business. They refused to do any seeding. In 2000 the Eckerman's sold their business to us so that they could move closer to their granddaughters. We truly miss having the Eckerman's as a customer.
The turf farm now consists of 216 acres of our land and 64 acres that we lease from our neighbor. We grow oats, soybeans and bluegrass sod. We also sell Versa-lok retaining wall systems.
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