Sodbuster sculpture

A bearded farmer leans into a plow behind a yoked pair of oxen in downtown Fargo, a sculpture that was late, then damaged by weather, then restored. Sodbuster, titled Sodbuster, San Isidro in the grant record, is by Luis Jiménez, who worked in polychromed fiberglass. The Fargo Parking Authority secured a $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts matching grant to commission it. The Forum reported in 1982 that it was the first public sculpture in North Dakota funded by such a grant and that the total cost was $40,000.

The path was not smooth. According to The Forum, Jiménez's first idea of square dancers and a fiddler met a generally negative local reaction, the deadlines of June 1979 and July 1981 passed, and Jiménez drove 43 hours from El Paso to oversee installation. It was dedicated on 17 September 1982 on the Red River Mall at Broadway and Main. The Forum called it 24 feet long. Details include a grasshopper in the grass and a plow blade slicing through a partly buried crock of dried corn. The City of Fargo's own page says it was installed in 1978, which differs from the 1982 reports.