It was decided that Brookdale, (now Parkland) in Pierce County, Washington, should be the Lutheran education center of the Northwest.

Harstad was elected president of the association, and the Norwegian Synod formed a new Pacific District in June 1893.

He spent a considerable amount of time traveling to supervise the new far-reaching district and to raise money for the university.

[1] After leaving the university, Harstad traveled through the Willamette Valley, ministering to churchless Norwegian immigrants.

He then stayed in San Francisco serving the congregation that Grønsberg had left, which had had some difficulty securing a new pastor.

In addition, Harstad spent much of this time attempting to persuade people to help the university pay off its debt.

In February of the same year Harstad and Parkland resident Otis Larson left for Alaska on the SS City of Seattle.

[4] Harstad refused to join the new Norwegian Lutheran Church of America, thus formally separating himself from the school he had founded.