A number of preachers from Norway (and other Scandinavian countries) were among the first settlers in the Norwegian Ridge area. They were making rounds to settlers before congregations were officially organized and a pastor was funded and “called” from Norway to serve them. Among the preachers were Hans Andreas Stub and Ulrik Vilhelm Koren from Bergen, the Danish Reverend C. L. Clausen, Nils Olsen Brandt of Valdres (and several of his sons), Gustav Dietrichson, and a few brothers of the Preus family. Not only do their personal accounts illustrate the arduous 4,000-mile journeys across the ocean and the American continent that every immigrant undertook, but they also detail life in the early settlements. Continue reading
Black Hammer is so-named because Knud Olsen Bergo came upon the prairie bluff after a wildfire blackened its sides, and Money Creek was named after a gust of wind blew the contents of an unlucky early settler’s wallet into the creek. These and other little gems of history are found in 
Continuing my series on maps, here is a beautiful historic map that covers all of Norway and clearly shows farm locations. Provided by Statens Kartverk, this map is actually a searchable composite map created by stitching together multiple historic “Amtskartene” (county maps) drawn between 1826-1916. Each county had up to 4 separate maps; here, the map has been rectified so it joins together and overlays perfectly on a contemporary map. 
Plat maps are an excellent resource for local history research. They show where a family lived and farmed, can demonstrate migration over time, and provide context when digging through census records. They can also be used to identify the locations cited in land grant, homestead, and probate records. High-resolution plat maps are clear and easy to read, though some of the links below are watermarked – just scroll the image to get around it.
When looking at old sources from Norway or even some from the US, reading the handwriting on official forms can be very difficult. There are several forms of script, as well as regional variations to make the job more confusing. The excellent FamilySearch.org wiki has an excellent primer on Where is Norwegian Ridge?
Norwegian Ridge was an early name for the area around Spring Grove, Minnesota, where many Norwegian immigrants established their farms and families in America. Read more...-
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