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(Photograph by Steve C. Martens)
The coal mining area around Flasher and Little Heart attracted a substantial core culture of Bohemian immigrants in the first decade of the twentieth century, who were sometimes characterized as “Freethinkers.” The “ZCBJ” (Western Czech [Bohemian] Fraternal Association) and the transliterate letters marked on the east gable of the lodge hall refer to the Western Fraternal Life Association. Dedicated in 1907, this rural lodge was established in Mandan three years earlier. Remaining active as a center of rural community activities, the lodge has hosted political, civic, and social gatherings. The lodge building is a clapboard-sided, gabled structure with a false front. This unassuming building embodies rural community and local culture that included dances inside on the waxed and polished hardwood floor. Situated on a rise, the building is completed by the paired his and hers privies at the rear of the property. Anniversary dances and other social gatherings are now held here infrequently.