Around Swedish America in 548 Days - Day 67

Day 67 - Chisago City

Several landmarks in Chisago City are connected with Moberg’s birthplace (and Chisago City’s sister city), Algutsboda. A park named in his honor also includes a statue, dedicated in 1996 with King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia in attendance, that portrays the Swedish author thoughtfully looking out into the countryside, hands in his pockets, tie loosened, with a bicycle resting against his leg. The plaque notes that Moberg (1898—1973) was “one of the foremost Swedish authors of the twentieth century. His most famous characters, Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson, were representative of the over 1.2 million Swedish emigrants that landed on our shores between 1846 and 1930. During the summer of 1948 he stayed in Chisago City and explored this area by bicycle. That research helped shape his most famous work—the epic tetralogy ‘The Emigrants,’‘Unto a Good Land,’‘The Settlers,’ and ‘The Last Letter Home: In Sweden, thanks to Moberg’s literary works, this land of Kichi-Saga-—the Chisago Lakes Area—is probably the best-known area of the United States.” Moberg stayed in a hotel at 29225 Old Towne Road, at the northeast corner of Old Towne Road and Lake Avenue, now a private residence.

Another landmark is Zion Lutheran Church, 28005 Old Towne Road (651-257-2713). Its congregation was organized in 1874, and the present church, clad in white metal siding, dates from 1908, succeeding the first sanctuary that was destroyed by fire. The building has a tall central steeple and Gothic- style windows. The Margaret S. Parmly Residence, 28210 Old Towne Road (651-257-0575), replaced the Bethesda Old People’s Home, established by Swedish

Lutherans in 1904, the first such home built by Swedes in Minnesota. In front of the residence is a small bronze statue entitled Child of Peace, erected in 2003 in tribute to “Aunt Johanna Franklund (1837—1930) by the families of Erik V. and Mary Safstrom-Franklund and Emil Safström. She made it possible for Erik ii and Mary 14 to come to Bismarck, ND from Ställdalen, Sweden in 1890.” It shows a young girl releasing a bird and holding a branch of flowers.