Jens Dixen House

Jens Dixen House

Behind the museum is the actual home of Jens Dixon

Just down the hill on the north end of the museum is the Jens Dixen Cabin. This small North Dakota homesteader’s cabin was originally located just north of the community of Kenmare, North Dakota, where Jens Dixen first lived when he arrived in the area around 1901.

Dixen was a Danish immigrant, school teacher, and lay preacher. He taught area boys in this house, and primarily focused on spiritual training. During especially harsh North Dakota winters, the students slept in the small attic. Dixen’s students became known as “shanty boys” because of where they were taught.

The Jens Dixen Cabin was moved to the museum grounds in 1999 and was restored by The Cedar Valley Danes. It has since been furnished as Dixen may have used it. Here, the cabin combines with the prairie in a potential emulation of what a homesteader’s experience may have been before the surrounding land was converted to farmland. The prairie in this area of the park contains bluestem grasses, partridge pea, butterfly and common milkweeds, yellow and purple coneflowers, and other native plants.