MARIAN OTSEA, clerk at Godah’s general store, consults with store manager Melvin Nundahl in the general merchandise department of the store. The store, owned and operated by a cooperative since 1894, also handles a long line of groceries, hardware, feed, fertilizer and a number of other farm and home items. The store and cooperative will observe its 80th anniversary at the coop’s

GODAHL — A town with a population of only 13 is likely to be overlooked by most people, especially motorists who pass by on the highway.

So if a particular town wants to get on the “map”, its residents have to do something noteworthy, in other words something that will put the name of the town in peoples’ minds and keep it there.

This is what Godahl did in 1956 when townsfolk staged their first annual Labor Day bash. At subsequent events, crowds have been estimated at over 5,000 as Godahl wound up the summer season of town festivals in the area each year.

But the populace was not satisfied that the public was getting the full benefit of all Godahl had to offer, so a group of residents and persons living in the immediate area surrounding the tiny settlement have joined forces and written a book-about Godahl, naturally.

The book, numbering over 40 pages filled with stories and pictures about Godahl people both from the past and present, will be released to the public in Godahl, Jan. 29, the day the town’s cooperative, operators of the general store, has its annual meeting and notes its 80th year of continuous service.

MRS. MARVIN WESTMAN, far right together with her husband, operate the only beer bar in town. The short bar with only four stools is used frequently by area residents in town for supplies or just a quick refresher. In the back room, or in the foreground in the picture, the Westmans offer a pool room with the usual trimmings. The room is also a trophy room of sorts with unusual objects from the Westman’s travels and athletic trophies won by area team in local events.

Melvin Nundahl, manager of the Nelson-Albin Cooperative Mercantile Association’s general store in Godahl, was coordinator of the book and probably wrote most of the copy. If Godahl had a mayor, Nundahl would probably be the man most likely to hold the office. He is the unofficial historian for the town and has scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings about Godahl, its festivities and activities of its people down through the years. Nundahl’s filing system which he rates as “unorganized,” contains such items as the one about the youth who several years ago signed a contract with the New York Mets baseball team and then played on one of its farm teams. There is no succeeding clipping telling what ever became of the youth’s baseball career, however.

There are numerous pictures of the young lovelies who each year competed for the coveted title, “Miss Godahl.” Glancing through the pictures, one has to marvel that the community produced such an unproportionately large selection of “talent.”

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GODAHL, WHICH IS said to have taken its name from the two Norwegian words “gode dahl’ meaning “good valley” is located on a relatively flat stretch of prairie about 10 miles north of St. James. There is no valley in the vicinity and residents have not the slightest idea about why the name was chosen.

So small it’s hard to divide in half, Godahl is in fact split down the center by the Brown-Watonwan County line.

Four of the town’s houses, including one empty or “haunted,” are located on the Brown County side and the remaining five homes are in Watonwan County. One of these is on a farmstead at the southeast edge of town.

Nundahl explained that although the town has no boundaries, the farm is included in the unofficial “city limits.” It is also the home of Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Westman, operators of one of the town’s businesses. The Westmans operate the farm with a brother and also run the business, a combination filling station-pool hall-3.2 bar. The Westmans also sell seed corn.

The poolroom serves as the unofficial trophy room for the Godahl area baseball and softball champs.

Sports and community events are an important part of life for every resident of the Godahl area. So much so in fact that the community in 1963 joined forces and pooling their labor and talents, built a recreation building that contains a fullsize basketball court with room for spectators.

There are also facilities for picnics and family get togethers. Nundahl said the building is already booked for every Sunday this summer.

It is in deranged for wedding receptions and anniversary observances, family reunions and organizational meetings. In the evenings and on weekends, area young people use the building for sports events.

The building is the center of the Godahl recreation area or park. The site features a ball diamond, an outside stage and seating area, and an open walled roofed shelter for bingo and other activities.

The tiny community’s third and final bastion of private enterprise is Forseth’s filling station. Owned and operated by Ed Forseth since 1931, the station has changed brands of gasoline several times since opening, but still looks much as it did when Forseth built it more than 40 years ago.

In addition to selling gasoline and oil products, Forseth also has done light servicing and still uses a pit to work under cars, instead of raising the vehicle on a hoist.

Forseth said he has sold gasoline for as little as 16-17 cents a gallon in the ’30s. Current high is 53 cents for premium.

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BUT GODAHL’S LARGEST and not necessarily most profitable business is the coop’s general store.

Nundahl, general manager, said the store did about $170,000 worth of business in 1973.

“But there is not much in the way of profits,” he added explaining that the business is conducted that way — to generate only enough to pay expenses and salaries of Nundahl and the four women he employee to clerk and keep books.

The store was begun in 1894 and the original building is still in use, but several additions have now been built to house more merchandise sales area.

The store features just about everything needed to sustain life and even made it quite pleasant, to a point.

There is a clothing department featuring mostly work clothing for men.

Another department holds a large selection of hardware items usually needed on farms and rural homes. There is also a display area for personal items such as shampoo, soap etc. In a separate area off to one side the shopper can find almost anything imaginable.

There are knick knacks, glassware, small electric appliances, kerosene lamps, bedding, sewing equipment and numerous other assorted items asked for from time to time by customers.

But the most space is devoted to a complete grocery line including processed meats and frozen foods.

“Our prices are competitive,” Nundahl said in describing food prices in his store.Many are actually lower than those found in city supermarkets.

Another area in the basement houses a large assortment of pipe fittings and related items farmers often need in emergencies.

Scattered throughout the store are items from bygone years. There are antique display cases and many merchandise items once in demand but now pushed away on some remote shelf where they have been gathering dust for half a century or more.

About 20 years ago the coop purchased the creamery from another coop and closed down the creamery operation but continued with the sale of feed, fertilizer and farm equipment. The building and property is located across the street from the store and is also used for warehousing.

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THE TOWN ONCE boasted a population of about 50, but by about 20 years ago this number had dropped to 23. There are now 13.

The town’s population now includes no children. Youngest resident is in his late 20’s as compared to the town’s oldest citizen who is 80.

Although the town has never had a church of its own, all residents belong to area churches.

There are 12 Lutherans who attend church at nearby Albion Lutheran Church, Lake Hanska Lutheran Church near Hanska, or at a Lutheran church in St. James.

The town’s lone non-Lutheran is also its oldest resident and a Catholic.

“But we all get along just fine here,” explained Mrs. Marvin Westman who has lived in Godahl since her marriage 30 years ago.

Nundahl figures the town never grew because it had no railroad. And with LaSalle only seven miles to the east and with a railroad and bank, Godahl just wasn’t needed, he added.

Referring to the annual celebration staged by the Godahl Recreation Association, he said: “Everybody’s put their shoulder to the wheel, but I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future.”He noted that most of the young people have left the area including his own children.

The book, which Nundahl says will be sold for cost, hopefully will by telling the town’s story, stimulate enough interest to help keep the community and the way of life it provides from falling over the brink of extinction.

New Ulm Daily Journal, Jan. 20, 1974

r in town. The short bar with only four stools is used frequently by area residents in town for supplies or just a quick refresher. In the back room, or in the foreground in the picture, the Westmans offer a pool room with the usual trimmings. The room is also a trophy room of sorts with unusual objects from the Westman’s travels and athletic trophies won by area team in local events.