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Palmer Stadum
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Palmer Alvin Stadum was born in 1909 on the North Dakota prairie. His life spanned a century of massive technological shift, moving from horse-drawn plows to the electrification of the rural midwest. He was a tinkerer, a builder, and an engineer at heart.
The Workbench
Where Palmer repaired radios and assembled model locomotives.
Where Palmer repaired radios and assembled model locomotives.
Tools
An array of hand-tools accumulated over 60 years of machining.
An array of hand-tools accumulated over 60 years of machining.
Beyond his workshop, Palmer's legacy was built on bringing power to others. In the late 1930s, he joined the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), traveling across Benson County to string the first power lines to remote farms.