Norwegian-born Ole E. Rölvaag (1876-1931) wrote the first draft of Giants in the Earth in this cabin, a story of homesteaders in Dakota Territory in the 1870s and 1880s. In 1923 he moved into the cabin, which he had built himself near Marcell, Minnesota. On September 6 he wrote to his wife Jennie in Sioux Falls that he was composing four hours each day. In two months the draft was finished, and he wrote, "It is a glorious privilege to sit...and write human destinies, to weave them together." In 1924 Part 1 of the novel appeared in Norway as I De Dage - Fortaelling om Norske Nykommere i Amerika (In Those Days - A Story About Norwegian Immigrants in America), and it was a popular success there, as was Part 2. A translation of both parts, published in 1927 as Giants in the Earth, was an instant success in the United States, and the book has remained an American classic. Rölvaag's cabin was given to the Nordland Heritage Foundation by his grandchildren and in September 2001 was moved in pieces to Augustana College's Heritage Park.