Fort Severson

[Abby Brown] Standing strong in the northeast Iowa landscape is this impressive structure.

(A tall, two-story, rectangular, stone building with a shingled roof stands on snowy ground in rural Iowa.)

It looks like it could protect anything on the inside from almost anything on the outside. And that's exactly what it was built to do.

(Map marking Mitchell County in northern Iowa.)

This is Fort Severson in Carpenter, Iowa. It looks like a barn, right? Well, it is a barn. But why is it called a fort?

In this case, fort doesn't mean military fort. It simply means a safe place. In the pioneer days, back when there was nothing but big, wide open spaces, people and their animals probably needed a safe place to rest along their journey. Maybe they stayed here.

Norwegian immigrant Nils Severson built this structure using local natural resources like stone and wood.

The fact that it's still standing isn't too much of a surprise when you admire the 18 inch thick stone walls. This place is sturdy.

Local legend says the builder included holes in the walls for self-defense, allowing for guns to point through and shoot at any threats outside.

But in reality, the holes were just created for ventilation purposes. Funny how tall tales get passed down through the generations.

If people ever stayed here, they would probably sleep on the upper floor, which was also used as a hayloft. Their animals would stay on the first floor.

There was no fireplace, so having their animals stay in the same structure was practical because if it was cold outside the animal's body heat would help keep the inside of the fort warm.

Fort Severson is on the National Register of Historic Places because it's a remnant, or leftover, of immigrant pioneer life in the 1860s.

Every county in Iowa has a foundation that was built to last. And Mitchell County, Fort Severson is proof that history can withstand the test of time.

Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.