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DJ Walvoord graduated from Hope College in Chicago in 1893.

Walvoord arrived in seems to have moved to Montana in the fall of 1894, where he arrived in Manhattan, Montana, part of an early contingent of Dutch settlers in the region.  Favorably impressed, he decided to take a position as a school teacher.

Walvood would be elected Sweet Grass County Surveyor in November 1896 (he received 324 of 326 votes).  He was re-elected in 1900, 1902, 1904 and 1906.  By 1913, he had been appointed the County Assessor  (Big Timber Pioneer, February 20, 1913, Page 3).

 In 1908, the Glass Brothers and a group of surveyors and engineers, turned two natural lakes, located in the central portion of Sweet Grass County, into two large reservoirs. Water was from Sweet Grass Creek to create the reservoirs, which fed  two irrigation canal systems, which were expected to irrigate approximately 17,000 acres. The upper lake was named Lake Adam for Ed and Emil Adams who sold their ranch to the Glass brothers. The lower lake was named Lake Walvoord in honor of D.J. Walvoord, the head surveyor.