Not far from the hustle and bustle of the city, there’s a special place where time has paused. Where a wood oven provides warmth, school is still taught in a one-room schoolhouse, and an old cowboy—Ken Haraldsen—remembers the past through poetry.
For Haraldsen, the Plains Conservation Center is more than just a museum—it’s an opportunity to show people what it was like on the plains during his childhood. 84 years ago, he was born in a sod house in South Dakota, just like the one he helped build at the Plains Conservation Center. “Building this sod house was a great thing, because there aren’t many people that can say they had anything to do with a sod house,” Ken explains. “It was a very important part of early day Colorado and other states around here.”
For more than twenty years, Haraldsen has volunteered at the center. Often he can be found talking to visitors at the sod houses about what life was like back then. “He’s a bridge for us,” said Tudi Arneill, the Executive Director of the Plains Conservation Center. “He’s one of the people who really help us help people understand how things used to be.
”He can bring that reality,” Tudi continued. “People really did live this way. I’m one of the people who did it.”
In fact, Kenneth was a real life cowboy in his earlier years. He actually rode in a cattle drive back in the 30’s and now relates what it was like in poetry. “Poems are a type of history, they’re the story about something that happened.”
“He’s a storyteller from way back when,” Tudi added. “The neat thing about Ken is a lot of the stories, he’s actually lived.”
Kenneth has a life full of stories gathered while serving others. He volunteered to serve in the military during World War II, joined the Army Reserves after the war ended. He’s also saved lives as a reserve police officer in Englewood and an officer in the Civil Air Patrol. Not to mention his hours of service with the Lions Club.
Haraldsen says his upbringing in rural South Dakota instilled the importance of helping others. “Most of (the ranchers) didn’t have cars. They had buggies, horses, or they’d have to walk. If anything happened in any of those homes and they needed some help the neighbors would go.”
“We would help one another.” Kenneth added, “You never know when you may need help.”
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