About 15 Linderman Education Center students have documented one Kalispell woman’s life in agriculture through audio, photography and written narratives.

“Kalispell Voices, An Auditory Collage” was a classroom project as part of “From the Ground Up: Montana Women and Agriculture.”

“From the Ground Up” is an oral history project developed by the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to train educators in teaching students how to document the lives of Montana women in agriculture.

At Linderman, a crew of primarily sophomores and juniors prepared questions, conducted an interview and produced a final presentation of photos and written work reflecting the life of longtime Kalispell dairy farmer Cheryl Fritz, 68.

English teacher Trisha Carlson headed up the project at Linderman with funding from a Kalispell Education Foundation Great Opportunities Grant.

Carlson learned about  “From the Ground Up” at a workshop and was eager to get her students involved.

On Thursday, Fritz was honored during a reception at the school. During the reception, Carlson showed a short movie students produced using audio from their interview with Fritz and a montage of photographs taken by sophomore Skylin Strong-Kurns.

A continuing theme of the movie was freedom. Fritz imparted to students the freedom that nature and farm life afforded her growing up.

She continued her family’s agricultural legacy when she married Carter Fritz.

“We were together for 42 years,” Cheryl Fritz said, noting that is how long she farmed.

She agreed that women have an important role in farming. To her, farming was a partnership.

“Carter was my rock and I was his,” she said. “You work together and plant together.”

Although she sold the dairy cows a few years ago after her husband’s death, Cheryl Fritz continues to live on the farm. Her sons Chris and Kevin purchased a portion of the land and continue the farming tradition.

Chris Fritz farms about 1,200 acres spread around the valley and raises beef cattle.

“I think this is great that there’s an interest in agriculture,” Chris Fritz said.

Cheryl Fritz was humbled by the notion that she was selected to share her story. She said she hoped the Linderman students were able to take away a glimpse of agricultural life during the roughly 2 1/2-hour interview.

“Growing up in ag is a whole different lifestyle,” Fritz said.

“I learned more about how differently the way she lived when she was young in the country,” Strong-Kurns said, noting the different perspectives of country and city life.

Through the oral history project, many students found they could earn high school credits not just in English but also in other subjects such as photography and science.

Strong-Kurns, for example, used the project toward achieving English and photography credits.

“I was excited to take the pictures, edit them and write the story of her life, which I thought was pretty cool,” Strong-Kurns said.

Science piqued the interest of junior Riley Delany, so he asked questions related to Fritz’ opinions on modern farming techniques such as genetic engineering.

“During the interview he asked her about organic farming and that sparked an interest in researching Atrazine [a herbicide],” Carlson said. “He worked with the science teacher and met with me to write a research paper.”

Fritz’s story is one of about 16 completed oral histories in the “From the Ground Up” project.

“From the Ground Up” was developed with support from Montana Conservation Districts, the Montana Historical Society, Montana History Foundation, and Montana Stock Grower’s Association.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.