Translated from 'Nordmændene i Amerika' by Martin Ulvestad. 1907. Dawson County Andrew Olsen from the Bergen area was the first Norwegian to settle in this county. He came to the vicinity of Miles City from Wisconsin in 1881 and began raising cattle. He is now dead. Next after him came Jonas Halvorsen from Sole, Jæderen, Mikal Kolberg from Thime, Jæderen, Carl Halling from Romsdalen, John Hillman from Stavanger and John Sørensen from Aalesund. The first Norwegian in the vicinity of Buford was Andrew Foss from Voss. The first in the region of Circle weer Peter C. Dreyer from Oxnæs, Vesteraalen, Peter Rørvik from Vigerøen, Søndmøre and Hans Grue from Næs, Romerike. One of my correspondents writes, "I live 90 miles from the nearest post office and 40 miles from surveyed land. My neighbours are extremely few in number and far away. We are a people fighting for our lives. But we do not fight to get neighbours. On the contrary, we fight to keep people away so that we can keep the plains to ourselves for our cattle. That is certainly not right, strictly speaking, but it is the reality. It would naturally be more pleasant to have a group of good neighbours. But then our means of existence would be diminished. It is about like that everywhere in Montana." Another writer tells that he walked and waded in snow and ice water a whole winter and only saw other people a couple of times. It was only the mail driver that he saw. He adds that he lost a bit of his health and was on the way to becoming insane after he spent the long winter alone with his dogs and herded his livestock. And that there are many who have lost both their health and senses in the acquisition of a small fortune out there is, sadly, a fact. There is one Norwegian church and two congregations in the county, one belongs to The United Church and the other to The Norwegian Synod. Mogens (?) Riveness, who was elected Court Clerk in 1900, was to first Norwegian to hold public office in Dawson County.