1893 Columbian Exposition Viking Ship finds a permanent home after 132 years!

Replica Viking Ship now in Geneva, Illinois

The GOKSTAD, the Viking ship that the Geneva's ship is a replica of, was unearthed in 1880 in a Norwegian burial ground. Norwegian researchers determined it was dated to about 900 A.D. . It is now in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo Norway. 

Captain Magnus Andersen, a Norwegian mariner and journalist, forwarded the idea to build a replica with the same materials, tools, and design as the GOKSTAD had been 900 years earlier. 15 brave Norwegian men sailed her from the North Sea to Chicago to exhibit her in the Columbia Exposition. To say Leif Erickson came here 500 years earlier in a similiar vessel?

After the fair she was sailed down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. The captain went to Washington D.C. to propose she go to the Smithsonian but that did not happen. Instead she returned to Chicago where she was anchored in the Jackson Park Lagoon as a permanent exhibit.

In 1920 she was moved to Lincoln Park. In 1983, to expand the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Chicago Park District planned to give her over to the Museum of Science and Industry. The museum intended to display her as a focal point of a new section devoted to maritime and navigation. She was temporarily stored in West Chicago, Illinois untill 1993. The American Scandinavian Council assumed responsibility for her restoration when she went to be displayed at the Good Templar Park in Geneva, Illinois

 Finally, now in 2025 she will get a permanent indoor home. Property has been bought in downtown Geneva by the "Friends of the Viking Ship", a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to preserve her for public display in a permanent museum with climate control.

Geneva, Illinois is just 30 miles west of Chicago. I have seen her in the Good Templar Park and I have also seen the original GOKSTAD in the Oslo Museum. A little far to head to Oslo Norway? Geneva Illinois is a trip worth taking.

*right click to enlarge for easier viewing*

200th Anniversary of Norwegian Immigration to America

 The journey began on July 4, 1825, when 52 passengers set sail from Stavanger aboard the sloop Restauration, seeking religious freedom, economic opportunity, and a new life in North America

One hundred years ago my Norwegian grandparents came to America.  Two hundred years ago came the first Norwegians. Read about it in a favorite blog of mine

                                      NORWEGIAN GENEALOGY AND THEN SOME

Check out also other interesting posts the author, Martin Roe, has blogged. A great help especially to beginning Norwegian genealogists.

Thank you Martin!

April 1865, Norwegian Family in the Civil War

April 1865 the U. S. Civil War ended. 

The Family farm Øvald had been worked by our family since 1650. By 1865 my third great grandmother Johanna Elisabeth and her husband Nils Jensen had inherited the familial right to farm on Øvald. Her younger sister, Karen, was not so lucky. She was widowed with three daughters. She remarried and she, her husband and three daughters were the first in our family to head for a chance of a new life in America. In America her daughter Hanna married another Norwegian immigrant named Charles Oleson. 

 November 27, 1861 Charles enlisted as a private in the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry to fight with the Union in the Civil War. So far this cousin, 4 times removed, is the first I find, and perhaps the only in our family who fought in the Civil War.

Charles Oleson 1843-1907

The 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry initially recruited 1,127 officers and men. An additional 998 men were recruited as replacements for a total of 2,125 men.

The regiment suffered 24 enlisted men killed or died from wounds in action and 4 officers and 284 enlisted men who died of disease for a total of 312 fatalities.*

*Wikipedia 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment

Humboldt Park, Norwegians and Leif Erikson

Humboldt Park area of Chicago housed a large Norwegian population in the late 19th and early 20th century. My grandparents lived in this area. We attended Syttende Mai (seventeenth of May Norwegian Constitution Day) parades in Humboldt Park proudly waving Norwegian flags. In the 1960's my grandfather died and my grandmother returned to Norway. By that time Humboldt Park was changing. The Norwegian population was generally gone with the exception of a few older folks. A large Polish population had also moved into the area and were now also dispersing. The area became largely Puerto Rican and remains so today although there is an influx of Mexican, Dominican and other Latino groups.

The bronze statue is 9 1/2 feet tall,
the granite boulder Leif stands on is inscribed
"Leif Erikson Discoverer of America"

In 1901 Norwegian Americans raised $10,000 dollars to erect a statue of Leif Erikson in the park. Quite a sum in that time! Norwegian born sculptor Sigvald Asbjørnsen (1867-1954) created the monument that was dedicated  October 12, 1901 amidst scores of flag waving proud Norwegian-Americans.

**right click and save to your computer where you can enlarge and read "Hearst's Chicago Morning American"**

Leif Eriksson was first!

As a kid it sure was nice to have Columbus Day off but my Norwegian AND Swedish grandparents made sure to tell me each and every year... 

LEIF LANDED FIRST!

Archaeology and DNA have since proven that Leif Eriksson and the Scandinavians were indeed the first Europeans to set foot on North American shores. Native Americans did arrive thousands of years earlier and it must (and righteously) infuriate them to hear folks say that Columbus "discovered" North America. I acknowledge them as the rightful first inhabitants but I still get a little pleasure in reminding my Italian-American friends.......

click & check it out↓↓↓

Happy Leif Eriksson day, October 9th,

For The Love of Norway: Vesterheim

  Click here → For the Love of Norway: Vesterheim

Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Heritage Center, in Bluff County of Northeast Iowa at Decorah, explores the immigrant experience and keeps alive Norwegian folk-art traditions.

"The Scandinavian American Story" - Worth the Read

I read today an interesting and informative article. All of the Scandinavian countries today have a combined population of 22 million. In the United States 11 million of us claim Scandinavian heritage.

click here ↓ for this interesting and informative article

LIFE IN NORWAY - THE SCANDINAVIAN AMERICAN STORY

I enjoyed this immensely,

Saint Patrick and Lutefisk

The coming of March reminds me that soon it will be St. Patricks Day! A yearly celebration with corned beef, cabbage and beer. We don't have a drop of Irish blood within us so why?  It seems what they say is true, "Everyone is Irish on St. Patricks Day". Being a proud Scandinavian, I cannot deny my own heritage so I thought there has to be a link with St Patrick that gives us a cause for celebration also.

 Our thing (God help us) is lutefisk. That slimy smelly lye-soaked cod that we Scandinavians love to hate. Well, some of us actually do like? it.  I just read an article that links us Scandinavians to St. Patrick. An obscure legend has it that St. Patrick gave us lutefisk!

No one knows for sure the origin of lutefisk. Both Norwegian and Swedish Americans claim it originated in "their" country. Although rarely eaten in Scandinavia today, lutefisk dinners are all the rage in the church basements and Scandinavian heritage clubs of the Midwest. Maybe lutefisk, love it or hate it,  binds us culturally and reminds us who we are and where we came from.

So back to St. Patrick.
One of the legends is that St. Patrick invented lutefisk in an attempt to poison Viking raiders in Ireland with the lye-soaked fish. But did it kill our tough Viking ancestors? No!!!  Instead they loved it and declared it a delicacy! I am sticking with this cool story, never mind the fact that St. Patrick lived centuries before the Vikings attacked and plundered Ireland.

So in honor of St. Patrick, who gave us lutefisk;

 I am still going with the traditional corned beef and cabbage, however. I HATE Lutefisk.

Click the link below for that interesting article which tells all about lutefisk

↓

Scandinavians’ Strange Holiday Lutefisk Tradition:
People in the Old Country won’t touch the stuff, but immigrants
to the American Midwest have celebrated it for generations

The Syttende Mai Parade

Yesterday a Syttende Mai parade was held in Park Ridge, Illinois. I did not attend. I have not attended since the parade left Chicago. Boy, that was decades ago.

A little explanation is necessary. The Syttende Mai is the 17th of May. It is the day Norwegians celebrate the writing of their constitution in 1814. When I was a kid it was a day of national pride for those of Norwegian ancestry living in Chicago. It is hard to believe that Chicago once held a large Scandinavian immigrant population. The Swedes hung out in North Park, Andersonville and Lake View. The Norwegians were in Humboldt Park or Logan Square. In any of those neighborhoods today you would be hard pressed to find a person of pure Norwegian or Swedish blood. In a lot of ways I really wish I lived in a part of the country that still has folks that relate to being Norwegian. Stoughton, Wisconsin is one of those places. I highly recommend their Norwegian Heritage Museum "Livsreise". At the side of this blog is a link to it. But Chicago.....no.

When I was growing up those Chicago neighborhoods were already beginning to break down, turning into dirty, depressed, crime ridden areas. They were the neighborhoods of the Scandinavian grandmas and grandpas who just couldn't leave the old neighborhood even though their more educated and affluent children, now married to folks of all different back-rounds, had long since done the "white flight" thing and escaped to the suburbs. The Syttende Mai parade drew them back if only for that day. It was held in Humboldt Park and was a pretty big affair, bands, floats, dancers. We would meet in Grandpa and Grandma's apartment on Pierce Ave. and walk to the park.  After the parade we returned to their apartment for coffee and cake. Lots of fun and flag waving but you got out of there before the sun went down. It just wasn't "safe" anymore.

1964 - my sister, waiting for the parade to begin

Time passed. Grandpa died and Grandma moved back to Norway. The old Humboldt Park Norwegians died or joined their kids in the burbs. The Syttende Mai parade left Humboldt Park and also fled to the suburbs. It moved to squeaky clean Park Ridge. I did attend a Syttende Mai parade in Norway one year while visiting my grandma. Park Ridge? even Norway? It just wasn't the same. It wasn't Humboldt Park.

Funny thing...many of those same Chicago neighborhoods are now doing a turn around. They call it "gentrifying"and it costs big money to live there.  Sure, you can again walk the streets in relative safety but I don't feel like I would belong there either.
Where are the grandmas? the coffeecakes? the Norwegian flags?

Gratulerer med dagen!

**click → SO WHAT EXACTLY IS SYTTENDE MAI?   **

Leif Eriksson - The First European in North America

"In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue".
He certainly did but he was about 500 years too late to "discover" the Americas.
We know Leif Eriksson was here first!

 to all my Scandinavian-American Family and Friends

Happy Leif Eriksson Day!

 

**click on the illustration to enjoy the short you-tube presentation**

37th Annual Scandinavian Day Festival

at VASA PARK IN ELGIN, ILLINOIS

35W217 Route 31

Elgin, Illinois

This coming Sunday September 11, 2016
10am to 6pm

35W217 Route 31, Elgin, Illinois

 for more info click ↓

VASA PARK - ELGIN, ILLINOIS

a good time in a beautiful park setting along the Fox River.

Modern Viking Ship To Sail From Norway To Chicago For Tall Ships Festival

Draken Harald Hårfagre 

named for the first king of Norway, Harald Fairhair

Check out this website to learn all about this modern replica of a Viking ship that left Haugesand Norway in late April 2016 for the 3,000 mile trip across the North Atlantic. It is scheduled to arrive in Chicago for the Tall Ships Festival this coming week.

Modern Viking Ship

Norwegian Christmas decorations to hang on your tree

Minnekirken 3rd Annual "Taste of Norway"

Looking ahead to November 21, 2015 here is a great outing to put in your calendar for those of us of Norwegian-American heritage in the Chicago area.

Minnekirken  

The Norwegian Lutheran 

Memorial Church of Chicago

presents its 3rd annual "Taste of Norway"

November 21, 2015

10:00 AM — 3:00 PM

They will have traditional Norwegian goods and sweaters, Christmas cookies, julekake (Christmas bread), lefse, waffles, ertesuppe (traditional pea soup luncheon). Docent-led tours of their neo-Gothic church's sanctuary. *

Minnekirken is the last remaining Norwegian language church in Chicago, Illinois. The church is located at 2614 N. Kedzie in Logan Square. Logan Square in the early 20th century had a large Norwegian speaking population. The area changed to Polish and then Spanish speaking population. There once was about 30 Norwegian language churches in Chicago and now Minnekirken is the last surviving one. It is however a thriving congregation although most of its members no longer even live in the Chicago area proper. Minnekirken, which means "Memorial Church" in Norwegian, is the last remaining Norwegian language church within a radius of 400 miles of the city. Minnekirken is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

* for more information *

   CLICK HERE TO GO TO MINNEKIRKEN WEBSITE

Little Norway Building goes home to Norway

Little Norway is gone forever.
Just a short ride from Chicago, approximately 5 miles northwest north of Mt Horeb Wisconsin on county highway JG a quaint little attraction called Little Norway stood. 

"Operated by the same family since 1937, the quaint attraction had, over the years, drawn thousands of visitors, who came to walk in the gardens, peek into the small museum of Norwegian artifacts or take a tour led by guides in traditional Norwegian dress.

The half-dozen original log cabin buildings on the property had been erected in the mid-1800s by a Norwegian immigrant farmer, who built them, according to Norwegian tradition, on a south-facing slope to catch the warmth of the sun. Each building had been meticulously restored and furnished with Norwegian antiques and artwork.

Lars Soelberg, left, and Ansgar Selst help dismantle a dragon from the roof of the Norway Building in Blue Mounds, Wis., on Sept. 9, 2015. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune) (Picasa)

The most striking feature of the property was no doubt the Norway Building, which stood on the hillside overlooking the valley. With its gabled roof topped by dragons, and ornate shingles crafted to look like reptilian scales, the building gave the secluded property a sense of enchantment, and made a visit feel like stepping into the pages of a fairy tale.

Commissioned by Norwegian officials for the World's Fair, it had been built as a symbol of cultural pride and patterned after the stave churches that, in the Middle Ages, dotted the rugged Norwegian landscape."***

               Wikipedia photo

               Wikipedia photo

I have been to Little Norway. It was a lovely place with Norwegian buildings and artifacts and guides dressed in Norwegian costumes. It is a loss to those of us of Norwegian Heritage in the Midwest who may never have the chance to see the beautiful and impressive stave churches and architecture of Norway. But it is for the best as now this lovely building, falling into disrepair, will be saved in Norway.

*** CLICK TO SEE THE NORWAY BUILDING HEADS HOME  

a continuation of the above article by Colleen Mastony  at the Chicago Tribune

- Ranae

Norwegian Heritage Center: LIVSREISE (Life's Journey)

Last May I attended the Syttende Mai (Norwegian Constitution Day) festivities in Stoughton Wisconsin. My German-born husband I know would have taken me but I also know he would not have enjoyed it, nor would I have enjoyed it as fully as I did when I went with a new-found friend also of Norwegian ancestry.  Get out of here, it was a riot! I for sure will go next year and tell you about it but for now you must know about THE BEST.

I went to the grand opening of the Norwegian Heritage Center: LIVSREISE (Life's Journey) newly built in Stoughton, Wisconsin. Stoughton was settled by Norwegians who came there at the end of the 19th century. They have a wonderful interactive display of what the journey must have been like. Although my Norwegian family arrived a bit later, during the 1920's and landed in Chicago, much of what they offered was of great interest to me. They also had a bank of computers in a Genealogy Center. It operates in conjunction with the Norwegian American Genealogical Center and Naeseth Library with direct access to their databases. Free no less! You don't see that very often.

Even if you are, like me, 1-2 hours ride away, check it out, it is SO WELL WORTH THE RIDE.

click► LIVSREISE (Life's Journey) Norwegian Heritage Center

277 W. Main Street Stoughton, Wisconsin 53589

T: (608) 873-7567  E: Marg@norwegianheritagecenter.org 

-Ranae