Little Norway! (Also known as Nissendahle, or Valley of the Elves.) It is a lovely, lovely place. (Thanks to Katie, who suggested we wait for a beautiful day to make our visit.) Since discovering that I have a direct ancestor, Christian Hyer, who was born in Norway and immigrated to Wisconsin, I have been excited to get a little taste of Norwegian culture here in Wisconsin. Other than my undergraduate obsession with Ibsen, I know nothing of Norway, the culture, traditions, aesthetics, or anything. Our visit was a wonderful introduction.
In the mid-1800's Osten Olson Haugen and his wife Birgit came from Norway. In 1865 they bought forty acres in this sheltered valley, choosing the land because it had natural springs, and began clearing the thick prairie. There was already a "badger hole" on the property, where they lived until they were able to build a home, the stue.
This is the dugout cave where the family first lived. It was already here when the Haugens bought the property--it had been used by miners.
(Phew! I guess we didn't have to drag our kids on a hike through the hills near Mineral Point to see a real "badger hole".) How would you like to live in something like that?
As crude as their home may have been, the family had shelter. So the first order of business was building a barn to shelter their animals. I think this is a picture of one of barns they built (though maybe not the first).
If you look on the side of the barn, there are hung a pair of "bog shoes" for the horses. They would attach these to their hooves so they could walk across what was then a very swampy landscape.
Eventually, the family build their home. This is a picture of their humble stue--though it was an immense improvement over the dugout.
Immediately, the homestead reminded me of the Finnish one we saw at Old World Wisconsin--it was a collection of smallish, single-purpose buildings spread out rather far apart. Our guide explained to us the reasoning behind this. In case of fire, only one structure would be lost instead of the whole farm. Very smart.
The Haugens lived simply, eking out a living on their small hillside farm with a few cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens. The Haugens farmed the valley for more than sixty years. Three of their four daughters eventually married and moved away. After Mr. Haugen died, Mrs. Haugen, her brother, and one of her daughters continued to farm the land. (Birgit was a tough lady--still working hard into her eighties.) But by the 1920 the land was essentially deserted.
In 1927, Isak J. Dahle, a wealthy man from Chicago who had been raised in the nearby Norwegian community of Mount Horeb, visited the valley and fell in love with it. He set to work carefully restoring the old buildings. And he drained the swampy valley floor, dug trout pools, and planted acres of pleasant trees. He also built several new buildings in the manner of traditional Norwegian designs and uses.
A favorite building of mine was this, the stabbur, or storage house. It's very cleverly constructed to keep out moisture and rodents.
And everyone loves a sod roof house.
This is David checking out the lovely spring house topped with its three distinctly Norse cupolas.
Isak Dahle was also a collector of Norwegian antiques, artifacts, and folk art. These buildings provided a perfect place to display his impressive collection (which even includes an original manuscript of a Grieg composition).
Before we get too into Isak Dahle and all his stuff (about which I will be brief, no worries), I want to go back to the Haugens, the original homesteaders. Actually, the subject I really want to go back to is ME. (Isn't that what blogging is for?) So MY great-great-great grandfather is Christian Hyer. I discovered earlier this summer that he was born in Norway and then immigrated to Wisconsin in 1842. (Remember? I was ecstatic to learn that I come from this hearty European Wisconsin stock! No wonder I love this place!) Christian was originally from the village of Tinn in the Telemark region of Norway. After being baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wisconsin, he made his way to Nauvoo, and eventually followed Brigham Young out west. He was a bachelor, working hard to help fellow Norwegian converts across the plains to Utah. Eventually he met and married Caroline, a young woman (and convert to the Church) from his home village of Tinn, Telemark.
Well, guess where good old Osten and Birgit Haugen of Little Norway fame are from! Tinn, Telemark, Norway. Oh, and my great-great-great grandmother's maiden name? Haugen! Okay, so Haugen is probably like Smith or Garcia. And maybe being from Tinn, Telemark is like being from Denver or Atlanta. But I can't help but wonder if I just visited the homestead of my cousins! (I'd like to think so.)
Speaking of Telemark, this is what traditional dress from that area looks like.
I snapped pictures of a few random objects in Mr. Dahle's collection. Like this quilt, which reminds me of one Greg's mom recently finished.
And this round-top trunk. (Your trunk has a rounded top? It gets put on top, so you're first off the boat. Those Scandinavians are smart folks.)
And these cleverly designed tine boxes.
Which were very common and came in all sizes for all sorts of purposes and tasks.
If you look at the decorative painting on the above items, you will see that classic Norwegian folk art, called rosemaling. It was all the rage in Telemark. And in certain circles it's still all the rage here in Wisconsin. (Like most things I know about Wisconsin, my introduction to rosemaling came from my bff Larry Meiller--and I had no idea what the heck he and his guests were talking about.)
Look at these beautiful examples of rosemaling.
The highlight of Isak Dahl's collection is the Norway Building.
It was built for display at the World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Patterned after an early Christian Norwegian church (or stavkirke), it was built in Norway and then carefully disassembled, transported, and reassembled for the expo. In 1935 it was relocated to its present site. The architecture is so different from anything else I've seen. It reminded me how little I know and appreciate about Norway (one of my many ancestral homes).
After our tour was over, we took a few minutes to enjoy the grounds on our own (and try to take pictures of some grumpy kids).
(Cool building, huh?)
And they found them all! All 44!! Hooray!
Thank you, Little Norway, for a very nice Saturday afternoon, and for introducing us to the Norse life.
That concludes our European Tour!
Almost.
We have a finale of sorts next week. We're heading up to Door County for a few days, where there is a concentrated smattering of culture from Denmark, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Iceland, and who knows where else. Not quite sure what we're going to see yet (besides, at Mary's command, the beach), but I'm sure I'll have something to report.
