Minnesota's Norwegian Americans

Like immigrants from many European nations in the mid-19th century, Norwegians left their homeland to escape overpopulation, food shortages, and farm foreclosures. They began arriving in Minnesota in the 1850s, drawn by rich farmland and job opportunities. Eventually they grew to become the state's third largest ethnic group, and Minnesota became a national cultural center for Norwegian Americans. Among the first to arrive were immigrants who had first settled in Wisconsin and then migrated into southeastern Minnesota. There they formed rural communities anchored by Lutheran churches, which were social and religious centers and visible links to the traditions of Norway.

As these farming settlements grew, newcomers moved on to the prairies of central and western Minnesota. When the railroad reached Moorhead in 1872, Norwegian immigrants poured into the Red River Valley. The earliest and most numerous group of European settlers in the valley, they quickly became leaders of business and local affairs. Norwegian immigrants in the 1880s and 1890s found other employment as good farmland became scarce. Some pioneered commercial fishing on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Others gravitated to the cities and the iron ranges, where they worked in mills and mines and as domestic servants.

To serve their growing numbers around the state, Norwegians formed their own institutions -- schools, fraternal societies like the Sons of Norway, political organizations, businesses -- that fostered the development of a Norwegian-American culture. Novelists like O. E. Rolvaag and Martha Ostenso wrote about Norwegian-American experiences. With an active Norwegian-American press as their forum, Norwegian-Americans rose to prominence in Minnesota politics, religion, and higher education.

Immigration quotas, the Great Depression, and World War II slowed the flow of new immigrants to the state. Yet Norwegian-American culture thrives in Minnesota today, supported by such organizations and the Norwegian-American Historical Association in Northfield, thanks to an enduring interest in their heritage by Minnesota's Norwegian-Americans.