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| 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*
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