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A labor of love

“It was called Mosquito Park back then (in the 1970s) until Reta took a hold of it and transformed it,” long-time community member Jane Olson said of Riverside Park located on Riverside Drive of Long Prairie.

When the Olsons moved to town in 1979, a young couple, Orvis and Reta Dahlen, reached out and welcomed them, inviting them to join the area orchestra. 
 
“They had the whole orchestra in their home every Tuesday night and were quite hospitable,” Olson remembered. “We would play a song, Orv would tell a joke, and at the end we had refreshments. It was very relaxed.” 
 
The Dahlens, themselves, were not originally from Long Prairie but moved to town in 1970 in order to work at the schools.
 
“I was from North Dakota; Reta was from Iowa. Long Prairie was in the middle. Our brothers were in the area, and they were married to teachers. There was a job opening for both of us, and so in 1970 we married and moved here,” Orvis explained.
 
“We eloped,” Reta said with a dreamy smile.
 
The talented and bright-eyed couple met at the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, at the North Dakota-Canadian border, where both of them were teaching. Orvis was a music teacher, and Reta was a fifth-grade teacher.
 
Taking walks together at the International Peace Garden, it became clear they wanted to have a future together. 
 
“We decided we shouldn’t go look for jobs until we were married,” Reta said.
 
They went back to Orvis’s hometown in Milnor, North Dakota and got married before accepting the positions offered at the Long Prairie schools.
 
Orvis enjoyed his role as band director at the Long Prairie School District from 1970 to 2003, contributing to the talent of the Minnesota Marching M’bassadors which took trips as far as Hawaii and as prominent as the Rose Bowl Parade and Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.
 
Reta started out at Long Prairie Elementary School as a fourth-grade teacher in 1970.
 
“I taught quite a few different things,” she said.
 
The couple have three children; and once the kids came along, Reta became a stay-at-home mom.
 
Times were changing, and so were teaching certificate standards. Reta’s teaching certificate had sufficed when she was hired in 1970, but when she went back to teach after staying home with the kids, it was not enough. Reta, with a master’s degree in teaching English from the University of Wisconsin, went back to work at the school first as a long-term substitute and then as the elementary school librarian. 
 
“It was a lot easier back then,” Orvis said about becoming a Minnesota-licensed teacher. “After that, they changed the rules.”
 
“I hired her,” Charlie Reichert, retired LPHS/LPGE principal, recalled when Reta became a full-time teacher the second time around. She was credited with a Minnesota teaching license for teaching secondary English, and Reichert offered her a contract. 
 
“You go out and you find wonderful people. She was just a wonderful teacher. She needed to be hired,” Reichert said. “If you have a wonderful person out there, you get ‘em.”
 
At 50 years old, Reta went back to college at St. Cloud State University to earn her Earth Science Teaching Certificate.
 
“I always liked rocks and weather,” Reta said enthusiastically. 
 
She taught eighth grade earth science for 10 years, retiring in 2007. Reta also taught reading and study skills and also high school English classes as needed.
 
“When I was teaching science, I used to take the kids downtown—going to the water treatment plant. Every year, a kid would say, ‘This field trip stinks!’ And it did!” she chuckled.
 
When Jennifer Olson started teaching English almost 30 years ago, Reta was assigned as her mentor teacher.
 
“Her pragmatic yet incredibly optimistic view of life and of learners has guided not only my teaching and how I connect with my students, but also how I live my own life. As my mentor, she taught me how to be organized in my classroom and to promote ALL learning, not just the subject I teach,” Olson, a high school English teacher at LPGE, wrote.
 
Reta continues her passion for the outdoors, English, and science through her work at Riverside Park. She also serves as a guide at the Christie House Museum and is a member of the city’s Park and Recreation Board.
 
From the troposphere to the exosphere, Reta’s interest in all of the atmosphere keeps her busy studying the plants and animals and researching and recording the history of the effects of a changing climate on Riverside Park. She has a list of vegetation, insects, birds, and mammals created by Ann Luloff, a Minnesota master naturalist who Reta invited to record the natural habitat at the park.
 
“I like to work outside. I was raised on a farm. I am not a golfer. I don’t do ice bowling. It’s close to my house, and when the kids were little, we’d take the kids to the park,” Reta said.
 
Reta’s dream for Riverside Park is to make it a nature center. She also would like to see a children’s park there to serve those on the northwest side of the river. 
 
“Riverside Park has a very interesting history,” Reta said, handing over records she’s gleaned from the Todd County Historical Museum’s archives of the Leader.
 
In 1935, the City of Long Prairie purchased the land from Adolph Huber, and the federal government set aside $24,300 for construction of a park there. Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers dug two ponds for ice skating, constructed a small dam on the Long Prairie River, and dug a ditch to carry water from the river to the ponds. 
 
“At that time, the land was dry,” Reta said.
 
Today, the area is practically an unbuildable wetland. Remnants of the WPA workers’ efforts remain, but World War II and then a flood in 1943 contributed to the current status.
Back in 1936, WPA workers had built up Riverside Park with a warming house for skaters, three small bridges to allow pedestrians and vehicles to cross the waterway, 11 log cabins along the river, and a
stone tower to provide light for skating at night.
 
Later, the Long Prairie Sportsmen’s Club paid for materials, and WPA workers built a clubhouse at the site. That same year, the area was experiencing a severe drought according to the August 1936 Leader.
In 1940, the Sportsmen’s Club had 100 members. By 1942 club members were being drafted to the war. Their last recorded meeting was May 1943.
 
In June 1943, a historic flood in the town washed out bridges and turned Main Street into a river. The Leader reported, “All low land along the river is now under water.” The Sportsmen’s Club was also flooded, and the Feb. 18, 1943 issue of the Leader headlined “Riverside Park to Be Abandoned.”
 
After 80 years, Riverside Park hasn’t been rebuilt, but it hasn’t been abandoned. Reta has spent hundreds of volunteer hours being a steward of the park, mowing, picking up branches, and removing litter. She organized an effort to hoist up a fallen bridge and has set pink flags out to mark the old trails which she enjoys using for cross-country skiing.
 
Reta isn’t the only person who hasn’t abandoned Riverside Park. She takes pictures of visitors who come to the park, then posts them to a Facebook group called Friends of Riverside Park.
 
“Almost daily she posts about visitors in the summer time which shows tremendous dedication to the cause,” Jane Olson said. 
 
Judging by the number of photos posted, it’s clear Riverside Park is not just an obscure swamp of mosquitoes but has become a regularly visited nature rest stop for people near and far.
 
“Reta is a treasure to our community,” Mayor Jodi Dixon said. “Her excitement, passion, and endless energy to beautify Riverside Park, is one of a kind. She seems to truly love Long Prairie.” 
 
Reichert, who has many fond memories of the good work Reta and Orvis have done said, “That whole family is so wonderful and have made such a great contribution to our town.”

Long Prairie Leader

P.O. Box 479
21 3rd Street S
Long Prairie, MN 56347
Phone: (320) 732-2151
Email: info@lpleader.com

 

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