WCSA AlumNEWS Spring 2025
WCSA faculty shared WWI artifacts with Stevens County History Museum An instructor at the West Central School of Agriculture was a part of one of the costliest battles in human history. Arthur Woodman was born on April 6, 1889, in Russell, Iowa. He graduated from Iowa State University, class of 1911, in civil engineering. He joined the faculty at the West Central School of Agriculture in Morris. In June 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Service, trained at Fort Snelling, and Camp Lewis, Oregon, and served overseas until the end of the war. Mr. Woodman brought back one of the most important items in the collection of the Stevens County History Museum in Morris—five panels of a complete three-dimensional topographic map of the Verdun region of France—as a war trophy. The complete map would have contained at least 20 panels. A typed note from the donor reads: “Relief map of a section of territory between the Meuse River and Argonne Wood, taken from a building in Stenay, France, formerly occupied as headquarters by the German Crown Prince, during W.W. I.” Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia was the commander of the German 5th Army during the war, which fought for 10 months in 1916 in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Meuse Heights, from which the French stronghold
of Verdun could be bombarded with observed artillery-fire. These panels are likely part of the topographical map used by the German commanders during the legendary siege, known as the Battle of Verdun. Combined casualties during the siege are estimated to have been over one million, making it one of the deadliest battles in world history. During the early age of airplane and dirigible use and in a war that featured the use of artillery, three-dimensional cartography would have been cutting edge technology that could provide advantages in logistics and tactical preparation. It boggles the mind to think that artifacts so central to a truly significant moment in world history have found their way to Morris, in part, because of the West Central School of Agriculture. Woodman was mustered out as a captain of the Field Artillery Unit in June 1919. He returned to Morris and taught at the West Central School and station for some years. He was interested in land development throughout westcentral Minnesota and was himself a farm owner in Stevens County. Woodman died on June 30, 1968, at the age of 79 in Des Moines, Iowa after a lingering illness. Arthur Woodman, undated photo from Stevens County Historical Society.