LEARN ABOUT ERIC'S new book, A Treasury of Old Souls.

Until selling the business to his brother and sister-in-law January of 2014, Eric Bergeson was the third generation owner of Bergeson Nursery in Fertile, MN, a business started by his grandfather in 1937. He wrote a weekly column for several newspapers in northwestern Minnesota for fifteen years. He has published five books, including Pirates on the Prairie, which the Minneapolis Tribune called "a Minnesota cultural and historical treasure." His sixth book, A Treasury of Old Souls, will go to press April of 2014.

On April 5, 2014, Eric announced his intention to seek the DFL nomination for the Minnesota House of Representatives in District 1-B in Northwestern Minnesota. 

Eric graduated from Fertile-Beltrami High School in 1982. He attended Northwestern College in Roseville, MN, and received his bachelor's degree in history from the University of North Dakota in 1986. After completing a Bachelor of Science in Social Studies at Moorhead State University in 1988, he returned to UND where he earned a master's degree in history.

During college, Eric studied at Cambridge University in England, student taught in Wellington, NZ, and studied in Warsaw, Poland.

Over the years, Eric has been a frequent speaker and performer in northwestern Minnesota. When needed, Eric has taught American history courses at the University of Minnesota, Crookston.

Eric recently finished a five-year tenure as Chairman of the Board of the Northwest Minnesota Foundation. He is acting chair of the Fertile-Beltrami Community Fund. 

In 2011, Eric was awarded a prestigious two-year Bush Fellowship to study eldercare.

He lives in Fertile, MN with his partner Lance Thorn.