Places_Solvang

Welcome to Minnesota and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul - the “Capital” of Swedish America. Here are some of the Swedish things we found for you to explore:

SVENSKARNAS DAG
“I had to pinch myself in the arm to be sure I was not dreaming,” said then Crown Prince Gustav Adolf when he visited Svenskarnas Dag in 1938 . Some 100 000 Minnesotans with Swedish roots had gathered at the State Fairgrounds, and the future monarch addressed them in Swedish. Svenskarnas Dag is still celebrated on the Sunday closest to June 24. This year the celebrations took place for the 67th time in Minnehaha Park. The crowd has shrunk considerably from the heyday of what was originally a picnic with an outdoor church service. This year’s Miss Svenskarnas Dag was Anna Nelson (above) and Arne Carlson, ex-governor of Minnesota, was honored as Swede of the Year. There was also Junior Royalty and the Swedish Immigrant of the Year, but most of all there was a pleasant music program to enjoy and a chance to meet fellow Swedes. Kids love the free ice cream instituted a few years ago by a Swede of the Year who remembered how it felt on a hot day when he as a little boy did not have any money in his pocket for an ice cream.

THE VIKINGS did not make it to Minnesota, even though many Scandinavians would like to believe that. This is especially true for Swedish immigrant Olof Ohman on whose farm the so-called Kensington runestone was found in 1898. The stone has the unlikely inscription “Swedes and 22 Norwegians on exploration journey from Vinland westward. We had camp by 2 rocky islets one day’s journey north from this stone. We were out and fished one day. After we came found 10 men red with blood and dead. AVM sve from evil. Have 10 men by the sea to look after our ships. 14 days journey from this island. Year 1362.” Even though the runestone was not written in a very ancient style, and it was dated several hundred years after the end of the Viking age (and proved a fake by Professor Erik Wahlgren), many people are still ardent believers in its authenticity. You can see the Kensington Stone right now at the Viking exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., and as a replica where Highway 52 and Sixth Avenue meet in Douglas County in eastern Min-nesota. There are also many who wonder if there isn’t a connection between the Vikings and the fair-haired and blue-eyed local Mandan Indians.

QUEEN OF TRAVEL
When Curtis “the world’s richest Carlson” passed away in February 1999, his oldest daughter had already taken over the reins of the family-owned conglomerate. Marilyn Nelson Carlson is now Chairman of the Board and CEO of Carlson Companies, an empire with 40 000 employees in 140 countries and such well-known travel brands as Radisson and Regent Hotels, TGI Friday’s restaurants and the Thomas Cook and Carlson Wagonlits travel agencies. The hard-driving, French-speaking 60-year old grandmother increased sales by $10 billion to $ 31 billion last year. Although she looks a bit like Alexis Colby in Dynasty, she has built a remarkable loyalty with her folksy charm and company benefits like flex time, on-site childcare center and profit-sharing plans. This over-achiever could have become a senator or an actress but she has chosen to “look after the company for the next generation”, grooming son Curtis to take over from her, something that could happen as early as in 2003. The entrepreneurial Curtis Carlson started the Gold Bond Stamp Company in 1938 with a $55 loan. By the time the coupon system had become less popular, he had already started branching out. Curtis was very proud of his Swedish ancestry and took his two children, 8 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren to see his grandparents’ birthplaces in Småland and in Värmland.

FRIFOTH edningarna, Garmarna, Väsen and Hoven Droven all bring new “Swedish Roots” music to North America. This new genre includes traditional folk music or a fusion of rock, jazz, heavy metal, Celtic and Nordic music. It was by chance that record executive Rob Simonds, who has a Swedish wife, brought home a pile of Swedish Roots CDs. After one listening session he was hooked, and launched North Side Records and the Nordic Roots Music Festival that has made Minneapolis the North Ameri-can capital of this hauntingly beautiful “world music” that Entertainment Weekly says is more “in” than Celtic music.
Conel Mattsonis probably the main cause of the many Swedish emigrants to Minnesota. “It was not the climate, not the very Swedish landscape or even the low cost of land, but the concerted public relations effort of the Civil War veteran and other emigration agents like him that made the difference.” You can still see Mattson’s home in Vasa, the town that he founded as well as his birth place in Onnestad in the south of Sweden where he (right) is celebrated each summer.

In 1870 twenty thousand people spoke Swedish in Minnesota. Thirty years later that number had risen to one hundred and twenty thousand. Many Swedes came because of the “letters from America” for which Mattson donated the postage. Erik Ulrik Nordberg was another Swede who wrote to Sweden and attracted more Swedes to make the move to Minnesota. Among these were Karl-Oskar and Kristina, the fictitious emigrant couple in Wilhelm Moberg’s block-buster books.

Wilhelm Mobergslept here in 1948” says the sign at the entrance to Chisago City. Many Swedes today follow “the Moberg trail” in the footsteps of the early settlers from Taylor Falls where they disembarked from the river steamers through the lovely landscape of fields, birches, oaks and lakes. You pass the Amador Heritage Center in Almelund (on Hwy 95, between North Branch and Taylor Falls, open during the summer 612-583-2203) where you can take a peek at the history of the early years. The first settlement was in beautiful Center City where the Swedish Lutheran Church is surrounded by the lake on each side. The congregation was organized hin 1854 and was for many years the largest Lutheran congregation in the United States. The nearby city of Lindstrom has a statue of Moberg’s Karl-Oskar and Kristina (actually a very rough and un-authorized copy of the original statue at the Växjö Emigrant Museum). The city has a Karl-Oskar day celebration every summer and you can meet some of the cast in the play about the Swedish immigrants at the Swe-dish Inn where they serve lutfisk and a Swedish combo (hamburger with cheese, bacon, special sauce, french fries and coleslaw). You will also come across friendly Swedish descendants in, for example, Scandia (Gammelgården Museum and nearby Hay Lake School and Log House Museum), Vasa, Malmo, Mora and Moorhead. If you have a serious interest in the Swedish immigration in Minnesota, visit the museum and informa-tion bureau with its research center in Taylor Falls.

The Indian God of Peaceis an enormous 60-ton Mexican white onyx statue (right) in the three-storied dark blue Belgian marble lobby of the St Paul City Hall. The statue depicts five Indians sitting around a fire smoking their pipes of peace. “Out of that smoke of tobacco and fire arises in their imagination their god of peace, talking to them and all of the world,” said Swedish sculptor Carl Milles (1875-1955) who designed the statue.
The God of Peace was actually Milles’ fourth attempt. His first submission was of the apostle Saint Paul, but the commissioners did not want a clerical theme, then of Mississippi, father of waters, which was impossible to cast in glass like the city fathers wanted, and then of a doughboy, as a peaceful soldier retiring from war, but the local veterans cried for a more traditional war hero with blood stains, guns and bayonets. When the doughboy was rejected, Carl Milles left on a ferry for Oklahoma, where on a chance visit to a tribe of Indians, he witnessed the peace pipe ceremony. His submission was accepted. While many of St Paul’s citizens stood in food lines in the midst of the great depression, local craftsmen started work on the controversial $ 100 000 statue, which was built in 98 sections. The statue sits on a revolving base which can be turned 45 degrees each way and is the jewel of this quite stunning art deco building that attracts over 100 000 visitors each year.

Carl Milles was born in Sweden, studied under Auguste Rodin in France and spent most of his adult life in the United States. He left behind him some 100 sculptures and fountains mostly in Sweden and the U.S. and above all in the fabulous Millesgården collection in Stockholm.

In the same way as Carl Milles was “adopted” by the Cranbrook Academy of Art at Bloomfield Hills near Detroit, another Swede, Paul Granlund is the resident sculptor at St. Olaf College in Northfield. You can see several of his works in the Twin Cities.

Minneapolis’ most famous sculpture is probably the “Spoonbridge and Cherry” by Swedish-American artist Claes Oldenburg. When “pop art” exploded on the art scene in the 60s, Oldenburg’s gigantic make-believe food became a given in the history books. He saw art in everything and his “spoon bridge” (right as a model) was exhibited at a retrospective at the prestigious Hayward Gallery in London in 1996.

Olle i Skratthultwas the stage name of Hjalmar Peterson (1886-1960) who was the country’s most famous Swedish comic. With his red wig, blackened teeth, long scarf and a never-ending supply of gags, he never failed to pack in the Swedish immi-grants wherever he went. “Farmers who never went anywhere came to see him.” Hjalmar came to Minneapolis in 1906 from Munkfors, Värmland. Originally a brick-layer, he soon turned to singing and toured his native Sweden with the Swedish American Quartet. He studied the best of the Swedish travelling vaudevilles and later performed their acts in the USA with songs and jokes of his own. His version of Nicolina sold over 100 000 records. Olle from Laughterville performed at the Scandinavian entertainment centers on Cedar Avenue (nicknamed “snoose boulevard”) in Minneapolis and toured to many Swedish settlements on the continent. He was joined by other performers and Miss Olga Lindgren, “well-known and well-liked for her beautiful singing” whom he later married. Towards the end of his life he joined the Salvation Army and only sang with its band.

Greyhoundis one of the best-known transportation companies in the world. It was started in Hibbing near Duluth by a young Swedish miner who drove fellow workers to and from the mine for a small charge. Carl Eric Wickman (1887-1954) had come to the United States at the age of 17. His first bus was a second-hand automobile. At the time of his death, the Greyhound corporation operated more than 7 000 buses.

THE SALVATION ARMY had barely got a footing in St Paul before Captain Arnie Olson arrived from Sweden in 1888 and started the all-Swedish Salvation Army Temple Corps #2. The old church he rented was situated right at the center of the Scandinavian quarters near “Swede Hollow” where “you had no business being if you couldn’t speak Swedish”. A stroll along Payne Avenue, where the Salvation Army is still located, would have taken you by Carlson’s bike shop, Lindquist’s blacksmith shop, Erikson’s shoe store, Anderson the cigar-maker, the Dahlquist dairy and Kjellberg and Lofgren, grocers. Today they are all gone, but you still hear Swedish at the Salvation Army meetings even though it is an English-speaking congregation.

The American Swedish Institutebuilding in Minneapolis (2600 Park Avenue, 612-871-4907) has been described as an architectural “smörgåsbord”. It was built by newspaper publisher Sven Johan Swan Turnblad (originally Månsson from Tubbemåla in the province of Småland) 1860-1933 on the city’s most exclusive re-sidential street. The house was “more grandiose and with more artistic adornments than anyone else’s in the Northwest.” Swan started out as a printer. When he was 23, he invested in and patented a letter-writing machine which sold well. Three years later he took over Svensk Amerikanska Posten and took it from 1 400 subscribers to 44 000 -aided greatly by the substantial Swedish immigration. He created a sensation by driving around in a new Waverly Electric, the first commercially-built automobile in the Twin Cities. The crowning glory of his empire was the Turnblad Mansion.

The front of the 33-room residence is of grey Indiana limestone. The interiors are paneled in rich African Mahogany. The huge Brandskattning at Visby window is one of the finest examples of stained glass art in America. There are eleven Swedish tile stoves (kakelugnar) but not many pieces of the original furniture. The furnishings were sold by Turnblad’s wife who was not too happy about his decision to donate the mansion to the Swedish community. The Turnblads lived in the mansion only from 1908 to 1915. They rented an apartment nearby during the rest of the time.

Today the beautifully kept mansion is home to 7 000 American Swedish Institute members who come here for movies, concerts, exhibitions, lectures, parties or just a cup of coffee in the Kaffestuga. The American Swedish Institute also has a bookshop, a travel program and many affiliated clubs. Swedish Consul and Executive Director Bruce Karstadt has introduced many new programs. Upstairs Roger Bauman runs the Swedish Council of America, the umbrella organization for 143 Swedish organizations all around North America.

JULIE INGEBRETSEN manages her family’s old world marketplace of fine Scandinavian foods, imported gifts, needle-work, clothing, books and music. Started in 1921, Ingebretsen’s is a Minneapolis landmark that always gets a lot of publicity around lutefisk time. Apart from Ingebretsen’s, Sandeen’s and a couple of other stores, it is quite difficult to find Scandinavian stuff in this most Scandinavian of states, that still does not have an IKEA store. Before Aquavit (see page 34) opened its doors there was no first class Scandinavian restaurant in the Twin Cities. Oscar’s no longer has any Swedish dishes on the menu and Pearson’s of Edina, “where you have to ask for middle names” so as not to confuse all the Andersons, Petersons and Jonsons that typically gather here for “after church dinners”, looks more and more American.

IT BANKER
Before Silicon Valley became a concept, it was the Twin Cities area that was the hotbed of information technology. At that time three mainframes of five in “the bunch” were situated in the Twin Cities, but nowadays it is medical technology that is the buzz word. Carl-Johan Torarp is a Swede, born in Norrköping, who wants Minneapolis to once again become a leader in IT. He has been involved in the sector most of his life, first with ICL, and then with Digital Equipment and NCR in Europe, before he moved to the U.S.A. nine years ago to start up his own venture capital and management service company. Last year Carl-Johan joined the investment bank Allison-Williams as a partner to strengthen both its Often finding himself on the plane across the Atlantic, Carl-Johan manages to carve out some time to sing with the American Swedish Institute Male Chorus.

CHARLES LINDBERGH is probably the most famous Minnesotan through the times. After finishing his training in the United States Army Corps, the 25-year-old Lindbergh took on the job of pilot on a plane carrying mail between Chicago and St. Louis. At this time a $ 35 000 prize was offered to anyone who could make the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris. Lindbergh was the outsider with his Spirit of St. Louis (above) but he won the race, crossing the Atlantic in 33 hours. There were 4 million people to receive him when he returned by boat to New York. “A more modest bearing, a more unaffected presence, a manlier, kinder, simpler character no idol of the multitude ever displayed. Never was America prouder of a son” and never had the Swedes of North America got a bigger boost. The Lindbergh homestead in Little Falls has been preserved by the State as a historic site (612-632-3154). Charles Lindbergh’s grandfather, Ola Månsson emigrated from Simrishamn and promptly changed his name to Lindbergh .on arrival in the new country. Charles’ father was a liberal political reformer and a Republican representative in Congress for five terms.