Swedetown
On August 1, 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew in low over Jamestown, NY and dropped a mailbag for the mayor. The town at that time was regarded as the most “Swedish” in the U.S.A. because close to half of the population had a Swedish background. Mayor Samuel Carlson had a Swedish heritage as had seven of his predecessors. Swedish immigrants had started arriving to this northern part of New York state in 1849. It did not take them long to establish businesses in the town. At one point there were no less than forty furniture factories headed by Swedish Americans. Swedes were also involved in everything from steel manufacturing to bakeries.

Today Swedish SKF owns two of the city’s largest industries and when you walk around town you come across company names like Dahlstrom Manufacturing Company and Backstrom Estate. But Jamestown has shrunk to a population of 35 000 and there are no longer any Swedish newspapers and when Bengtson’s Grocery closed its doors a few years ago it was goodbye to the last vestiges of a “Swedish” lifestyle.

Lucille Ball
was the first lady of comedy and was successful in keeping more than two-thirds of all American homes with a television set tuned to her I love Lucy at its peak in 1952-53. Her dizzy redhead with the elastic face and saucer eyes became the model for scores of comic television females to follow. Most people still fondly remember Lucy episodes like the one where she is taping the Vitameatavegami commercial and gets steadily drunk downing spoonfuls of the alcohol-laced potion she is trying to hawk. Lucille Ball (1911-1989) was born in Jamestown (where there is a Museum about her at 212 Pine Street) and always joked about how she was fired in 1926 from the Swedish Walgrens drugstore and soda fountain for forgetting to put in the banana in the banana split.
Another much sadder Jamestown memory was that of her brother Fred’s birthday party with all the neighbourhood kids when he accidently shot eight-year old Warren Erickson with a gun he had just received as a gift.

The Scandinavian Folkfestival
is how Jamestown celebrates its Swedish heritage with music, food, crafts and culture (September 5,6,7, at 715 Falconer St. 716-761-6184 www.lutheran-jamestown.org) every year. The location is the beautiful Lutheran Social Services Campus. The site was originally that of the Gustavus Adol-phus Children’s Home for Swedish orphans founded in 1886. This year Hoven Droven and Nyckelharpa champion Peter Puma Hedlund are among the performers from Sweden. The festival is really the brain child of Swedish Consul and Solicitor John Sellstrom who oversees the Johnson Foun-dation. John Alfred Johnson was a bachelor who worked as a house painter most of his life. In retirement he started investing and was so successful that he became a multi-millionaire. Because he never bought a bigger house or changed the way he dressed, or his habits, people were unaware that he had amassed a fortune during his lifetime. His money was bequeathed to The Johnson Foundation that now assists such Swedish endeavours as the Scandinavian Studies Program and the Scandinavian Folkfestival.

Roger Tory Peterson
is to bird-watchers almost what Carolus Linnaeus has been to flower lovers. Before Peterson published A Field Guide to Birds in 1934, ornithologists had to shoot and retrieve birds before they could identify them with complex dichotomous keys. Peterson’s system with simple illustrations pointing out distinguish-ing features with small arrows made bird-watching accessible to millions of American and spawned the multi-billion bird-watching industry. The eastern edition of A Field guide to Birds has now sold eight million copies and many other of Roger Tory Pe-terson’s 22 books are among the best-selling non-fiction books of all time. The popular educator, artist, photographer and orni-thologist became one of the most decorated naturalists of all times with at least twenty-two honorary doctoral degrees, Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Medal of Freedom and two nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996) was born in Jamestown to an immigrant father from the province of Vrmland. He always paid tribute to his grade 7 teacher, Mrs Blanche Hornbeck for sparking his interest in birds by giving him a colour plate of a blue jay to copy, and encouraging her class to join a Junior Audubon Club. Today you can visit The Roger Tory Peterson Institute of National History in Jamestown (311 Curtis St., 716-665-2473, www.rtpi.org) to see wildlife art and nature photography by Dr. Peterson and others as well as enjoy a hike and some birding on the 27 wooded acres.

First Lutheran
is the only Swedish cathedral in North America. With 1 100 seats (that never fill up for sermons), it is the largest gathering place in Jamestown and filled to capacity when the local business college has its convocation ceremony or when the A Capella Choir from the High School has its annual concert. The impressive Romanesque building, that is 136 feet long and 64 feet wide with a 153 foot tower, was completed in 1901 on the site of the original church from 1866.

“There’s a different trinity at First Lutheran,” says Pastor Charles “Rusty” May and points out the beautiful long stained glass windows depicting Jesus Christ, Martin Luther and Gustav II Adolphus. Sermons in the church were conducted in Swedish until 1912, in both Swedish and English until the 30s and became all-English in the 40s. Pas-tor May who has no Swedish roots himself feels that the Swedish heritage should no longer be a priority. He is more focused on the 75 percent of Jamestown’s population that does not attend church on Sundays. There has been a weekly local Salvation Army radio program in Swedish and there is stiff competition between the 55 churches in town, including seven congregations founded by Swedes.

Fenton History Center
is a must if you want to travel back in time. The museum and library (67 Washington St., phone 716-664-6256 www.fentonhisto rycenter.org) is located in the mansion of lumber baron and governor of New York State Reuben E. Fenton (1819-1885). In the living room you find a writing desk made by the Lindblad Brothers Furniture and the piano from 1875 is from the Ahlstrom Com-pany. In the basement is the Jennie Vim-merstedt Swedish Heritage room with a complete “stuga” cottage and many artifacts and examples of the Swedish immigrants’ skills in woodcarving, weaving and lace-making. Here you also find the specially commissioned chair King Carl XVI Gustaf sat in at the luncheon held at the Jamestown Municipal Building when the Royal Couple visited town in 1976. If you take the stairs to the fourth floor tower you get one of the best views of the city and the First Lutheran Church that was designed by the same architect as the Mansion, Aaron Hall.

Viking Lake Park
on Lake Chautauqua is the beautiful summer retreat for members of the Ingjald (for men) and Diana (for women) Viking lodges. Originally purchased for $35 000, the waterfront acreage is worth millions today and provides for a wonderful get-away from the hustle and bustle of nearby Jamestown. Members may not build permanent structures here but many have campers and mo-tor homes on the grounds and spend evenings in the clubhouse that seats up to 600 for dinner. Jamestown also has the Norden Club, the Norden Women’s Club, the Vasa Thule Lodge and the American Scandinavian Heritage Foundation as well as folk dancing groups and the Viking Male Chorus.

From the September 2003 issue and Swedish Press