Jabs Farm

Historic Jabs Farmstead, Louisville Swamp, Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Reached by a walk of roughly a mile and a half into the Minnesota River Valley, the historic Jabs Farmstead feels remarkably removed from the Twin Cities that surround it. Its surviving stone buildings date to the late 1800s, including a barn marked 1880. Frederick Jabs purchased the farm in 1905 and his family worked the land until 1952. Today, only fragments remain: old roads, stone walls, empty windows, and fields. This photo essay documents what endures, the architecture, the isolation and the quiet persistence of a place slowly being reclaimed.