| Ytterboe: Star of screen and St. Olaf |
By: By CATHERINE ROBERTS
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Posted: Friday, April 18, 2008 11:55 pm
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Ytterboe is adored by St. Olaf students, circa 1955. (Photo courtesy of St. Olaf College Archives)
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It’s difficult to know if this stray dog adopted the town, or if the town adopted him.
Dubbed Ytterboe by St. Olaf students, the large black dog became a campus mascot who spent his days lazing about campus, accepting scraps of food from the cafeteria, and taking short trips to town.
Until he suffered an unfortunate brush with the law, that is.
Two St. Olaf College students are working together to create a video documentary on the life and death of Ytterboe the Dog — and his far-reaching effects on Northfield during the late 1950s — as part of an internship with the Northfield Historical Society.
“The story of Ytterboe is an integral part of Northfield history, and it needs to be told,” said Hayes Scriven, executive director of the Northfield Historical Society. “Last year we did a documentary on World War II. It was very well received. Video documentaries are a great way to present Northfield history. It’s better than a lecture, it’s more modern, and it allows us to be on the cutting edge of history presentation.”
“We would like this documentary to educate students about Ytterboe,” said Stephanie Tanner, St. Olaf sophomore and Computer Science/Mixed Media Studies major. “Many St. Olaf students don’t know who Ytterboe is, or how his life and death affected so many in this town.”
HEAR THE STORY
Radio reports from the events following Ytterboe’s May 1957 death are available online through the St. Olaf College Archives. Find them here.
SEE THE FILM
The Ytterboe documentary will be shown to the public at 6:30 p.m. on May 1 at the Viking Theater in St. Olaf’s Buntrock Commons.
The Northfield Historical Society looks forward to creating more documentaries this summer and next year. Contact Hayes Scriven to learn more at 507-645-9268 or www.northfieldhistory.org. |
As the story goes, Ytterboe left campus one spring day and started digging up a flower bed in the yard of one of the town police officers.
His young son tried to shoo the dog away, and Ytterboe responded with an uncharacteristic nip to the boy’s arm.
The wound proved superficial, but it sent city police officers up the St. Olaf hill to capture the dog who, without a collar or license, was living outside the law. Capture proved tedious, if not impossible. The police then shot the dog twice, placed his lifeless body in the trunk of a squad car, and drove to town.
This incited a small riot among St. Olaf and Carleton students, who then swarmed to town, stopped in front of the police station and demanded the dog’s body for a proper burial amidst the chanting chorus, “We Want Ytterboe!”
Northfield News reporter Maggie Lee recalled watching the throng of students choke the streets in front of the police station that day in 1957, and burn in effigy the police officer who shot Ytterboe.
Lee noted that police officer received so much grief in Northfield regarding his actions that day that he moved to the Twin Cities and never came back to Northfield.
“As we complete interviews and learn more about this event, our own perceptions and pre-conceived notions of the people involved are challenged,” said Jessica Steinbach, a senior history major. “I pictured the police officer who shot Ytterboe to be an angry guy with a pot belly in his forties, frustrated after chasing this dog around campus. But I now know he was a much younger police officer, probably in his twenties, and he made a decision in the heat of the moment that greatly affected his life, and that of others in town that day.”
“It has been a challenge to take all this information from archives, interviews, and various publications and condense it all down to just one story,” said Tanner.
That story ends with Ytterboe’s head being sent Minneapolis for rabies testing, which came back negative, and the dog’s body being reclaimed from the city dump. Ytterboe was laid to rest on the St. Olaf campus with much flair and dignity. The funeral was attended by more than 2,000 people and was carried live by Minneapolis radio stations.
“We recommend that students get involved in learning about Northfield history,” said Steinbach. “The more we learn, and the more interviews we do, we start to feel nostalgic. This was also a great intellectual exercise, and we have appreciated this opportunity.”
The documentary of Ytterboe’s life will be shared with the public at 6:30 p.m. on May 1 at the Viking Theater on St. Olaf campus, followed by a discussion with the students who created it.
— Catherine Roberts can be reached at croberts@northfieldnews.com or 645-1114.
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