Gordon and Marian Dahlgren collected items for more than four decades and created Gordon’s Butter & Dairy Museum for their family and friends in Vergas. During Looney Days this summer, the museum was showcased and attended by Mayor Julie Bruhn.

By Robert Williams

Editor

Mayor Julie Bruhn could not have picked a better time to show off the collection created by her parents Gordon and Marian Dahlgren during Looney Days 2025 that attracted more than 17,000 people to the village during the annual festival July 31-Aug. 3. It was the first Looney Days showing of the museum since Gordon’s passing.  ¶  “My dad’s been gone 18 years,” Bruhn said.  ¶  Gordon would open the museum every Looney Days when he was alive and was also known  for his dairy float consisting of a golf cart known as the cowmobile advertising the museum along with family members, one dressed up as the kicking cow. In 2007, another cow was planned for the parade.  ¶  “We still pull the cow through the parade every year; we’ve done that for 18 years,” Bruhn said. “The first time it was pulled through the parade was the day he died.”  ¶  Dahlgren passed away at the age of 76 on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2007, just hours before the Looney Days parade.

Gordon’s Butter & Dairy Museum is displayed in multiple rooms in the basement of Vergas State Bank and has all kinds of historical items like an old gas street light and displays of the famed 1981 robbery of the bank and the complete history of the construction of Vergas’ famous loon statue. Vice President Sherri Hanson is the lone remaining employee at the bank who was present for the robbery.

“He died at 9:30 that morning and it was going to debut; us kids came from the hospital and said, ‘We’re putting it in,’ and we did,” said Bruhn. “It’s been in every parade since.”

Since Dahlgren’s passing the museum has been open to the public during banking hours but it had been somewhat neglected the past decade.

“I decided this year it’s going to be open,” Bruhn said.

She had milk and cookies and greeted visitors, many of whom had an interest and a past with the dairy industry.

“I had great conversations with people who grew up on dairy farms who just knew some of the things and they had questions,” Bruhn said. “That was fun.”

Amber Dahlgren, Garrett Dahlgren, the kicking cow, Jeremy Bruhn and Sherri Hanson in 1992. “He got everybody in parades, our kids, and I was frequently the cow in the cow costume,” said Bruhn. Gordon was the Grand Marshal of Looney Days 1995.

Past visitors have told Bruhn that they think Gordon’s collection is likely the most comprehensive collection in terms of just dairy items in the United States.

“They said you just don’t see all of this in one location,” Bruhn said. 

Many items in the museum come from surrounding small towns.

“There used to be a lot more dairy farms and everybody had creameries,” said Bruhn. “I think we have most of their creamery boxes and milk containers here.”

Both Gordon and Marian Dahlgren were born on farms in Pope County near Kensington and grew up milking cows by hand and doing farm chores. 

The Dairy Museum is not looking to add items, but does have a few special pieces missing. Julie Bruhn discussed one piece that may be out there the museum could use. A 1991 Land O’ Lakes Christmas ornament is the only one missing from the collection hanging on a small Christmas tree.

“He had that dairy farming in his background and then he moved to Vergas in 1956,” said Bruhn. “He started Dairy Days with Norman Hanson who was the Creamery manager at that time. He kept his interest and bought his first churn at an auction sale in town. He picked up a couple more churns and it just kind of started.”

Norman Hanson became a federal inspector and donated his tools to the museum after his death. Sherri Hanson was present at the bank when Norman’s family made the donation.

“It was just like they were giving your dad the greatest gift,” Hanson said. “It was pretty cool.”

Dairy Days was a large event held in June at the Event Center and the basement of the bank.

When the bank was remodeled in 1987 Dahlgren began putting his collection in the basement. He would bring visitors down, especially local dairy farmers to see it, but did not consider it a museum until he officially opened it in 1989.

One of the most interesting pieces in the Vergas Dairy Museum is a Maytag washing machine that has a churn attachment that fits over the Gyratator post and butter is churned by the same power that runs the washer.

“He could sit and visit forever talking to them,” Bruhn said. 

“What was so unique about Gordon was when we did have Dairy Days and he was making butter for an event, he would just come down here and just grab different things he needed to use,” said Hanson.

Those were also the days when Vergas State Bank would clerk auctions, according to Hanson. 

That allowed Dahlgren a first look at any possible additions to the museum.

“Customers who were dairy farmers would bring stuff in and he got a little bit of a taste that way and then he got a taste of the road,” said Hanson.

Bruhn also had a hand in finding some of the memorabilia for the museum. 

“I used to drive him to Arizona every year to his condo and that’s what we did on the way down; we stopped at antique places and looked for dairy museum stuff,” said Bruhn. “He has stuff from everywhere. Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma were a common area and Iowa. He especially liked Kansas and he found stuff in Arizona too.”

Frequent visits to the same antique dealers allowed Dahlgren to make a name for himself and those dealers started looking out for items he would be interested in collecting.

“He would get calls and sometimes we were picking up something on the way; he’s got stuff from several states,” Bruhn said.

Many standout items in the museum are of a particular brand.

“I think my dad’s greatest love was DeLaval,” Bruhn said.

DeLaval is a full-service supplier to dairy farmers still in operation in more than 100 markets and caters to customers with livestock size ranging from 1 to 50,000 animals.

“He loved it all but DeLaval was something he really loved,” Bruhn said.

There is also one item missing from the museum that Bruhn is pursuing. Bruhn made a note that the museum is not looking to add items but this item is the exception. It is a Land O’ Lakes Christmas ornament from 1991.

“Land O’ Lakes would give all of their people a Christmas ornament at the end of the year and he always had customers come in and give one to him and Marion Antonsen was the best resource on that because she worked here,” Hanson said.

“That’s the only one missing yet; it’s a pewter one; it’s got a barn with a silo,” said Bruhn.

While the museum is one item short of complete there are thoughts of what should happen to the museum in the future. Dahlgren had a plan for that also. His hopes were that if it ever left Vergas that it would end up in the Otter Tail County Historical Society in Fergus Falls.

“That’s what is in my dad’s will; he doesn’t want it separated,” said Bruhn. 

There lies a big ironic pun in that choice of words in not having the collection be separated considering dairy separation refers to the process of dividing milk into its components, primarily cream and skim milk. This is commonly achieved using a separator, a centrifugal device that leverages differences in density to separate the components. In the dairy industry, this separation is crucial for producing various milk products and other dairy items.

“He even wrote that I know the day will come when my children may not be here,” Bruhn said. “I don’t want it separated. If the city doesn’t want it he would like Otter Tail County Historical Society to take it. It’s kind of in the works. I’m thinking about it.”

There are even items from Fergs Falls in the museum, including a pick from the Fergus Falls Creamery that was used to remove milk bottle caps.

Visitors to the museum can also take a couple items home from the museum, including Vergas Creamery butter boxes and a book about the museum that Dahlgren worked on with former Forum Publishers Gale and Delair Kaas.

“It was important to my dad,” Bruhn said. “He saw it as preserving history and how important history is. We’ve kept it going. Probably a lot of people didn’t know about it. It’s in a bank basement—a little obscure. We really do hope it is preserved.”

Aside from the museum, Gordon was president and chairman of the board of Vergas State Bank. Marian retired from nursing at St. Mary’s Hospital in Detroit Lakes in 1994. The couple raised four children. Gordon was active in all civic functions of the village including the fire department and he was Vergas’ Mayor for a quarter century from 1961-87.