Retired Dickinson instructor to serve as grand marshall in Tioga

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Fifty years later, Arlo Howe is returning to the Farm Festival in Tioga, the oil capital of North Dakota. This year Howe will be honored as grand marshal for the annual event he created 50 years ago.

In 1958, Howe was a vocational agriculture instructor at Tioga High School and wanted a forum that returned some of the attention back to farmers and the role agriculture played in northwest North Dakota - attention which had been recently lost to the oil boom. With all the talk of the Bakken Formation reviving the oil industry in the state, the timing of the 50th anniversary of the Tioga Farm Festival recalls the era when it began.

Since its inception, some aspects of the festival have changed, but it continues to remain popular, drawing hundreds of people to Tioga each September. The Farm Festival has grown to a three-day event and still brings the community together with entertainment, activities, meals and exhibits.

Howe will be honored during the parade at 10:30 on Saturday, Sept. 12.

For more information, go to www.tiogand.net or call Tioga City Hall at 701-664-3807.

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