And Now I'm in Norway!

Hey, what's going on here? I was supposed to be off finding America. But my first night on the road was spent in Poland! (Ohio). And then I was in Holland, Michigan. Now, I'm in NORWAY! Well, actually it's "Little Norway" and it's in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin.

But wait a minute: that's what America is, isn't it? A patchwork of humanity from across the globe participating in this ongoing experiment called America. How cool is that! Obviously people from other lands came here, started communities, and named them for the places from whence they came.

Little Norway is a small slice of what life was like for Norwegian settlers in the upper midwest in the 1800s. This farm got its start back in 1856 when a farming family emigrated from Norway. For more than seventy years members of the family eked out a living on the farm, tilling the sloping Wisconsin fields. Most of the buildings at Little Norway date from that era. The original family of six shared a small cabin with one room downstairs - kitchen, living, and dining room - and one upstairs - the bedroom.

In 1927, the farm was purchased by Isak Dahle of Chicago as a retreat. It is presently owned and operated by the fourth generation of Dahle's family and is open to the public. The friendly staff is welcoming and eager to show visitors the farm buildings and explain the significance of the hundreds of farm and household artifacts and crafts.

A guided tour of Little Norway is an education in all things Norwegian. I have to admit that some of the more arcane aspects of Norwegiana were lost on me, but some of the people on our tour paid rapt attention to descriptions of weaving techniques, the meanings of the intricacies of certain painted designs, and the various functions of small, carved boxes.

I did perk up when our guide described how these large bowls, filled with ale, were offered to guests.

In my defense, the temperature was in the high 90s with the humidity in the same general range. I had thought I'd be leaving the hot weather behind in Maryland, but apparently it's everywhere this summer!



For me, the height of the tour was the impressive Norway Building. It was built in Norway for the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition and later moved to Little Norway.

It is patterned after a 12th century stavkirke or stave church, a medieval wooden church with post and beam construction.




I really did enjoy seeing the farm buildings and wandering the lush grounds of Little Norway, Wisconsin.


CAVE OF THE MOUNDS

As a sort of bonus, I got a free ticket to see the nearby Cave of the Mounds. Now, I should explain that I'm not really a cave kind of guy. For one thing, most of them haven't been eroding away for enough millions of years for me to stand up in them. I'm always grazing my head on the ceilings. Additionally, to me they are really just, let's face it, holes in the ground. Yes, they sometimes have interesting things hanging from the ceilings or lustrous colors on the walls. But you have to take a long walk in a low-ceilinged hole in the ground to see that. I usually spend my time in caves trying to remember the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite in case the guide asks me. No guide has ever asked me this, but I keep thinking that they might.

I went into this cave for two reasons: it was free and it promised to be a lot cooler down there than up on top. On this last issue, it's interesting to see how long you can enjoy a drop in temperature from nearly one hundred degrees to just fifty. If you're dressed in shorts and T-shirt and you've been perspiring, it's not really that long. This realization arrives shortly after the tour begins.

Some of what was down there:























(OK, I can stand up in most caves, especially the ones called "caverns." It's just that somewhere along the way the passageways seem to close in and you have to "scroonch" through.)