June 2023

Farmers arrived in southern Alberta in large numbers after 1900

A surprising number of Norwegian-American farmers participated in the settler boom in southern Alberta after 1900. Many among their children and children’s children still live and farm in the region today. Seen from a Norwegian perspective it is both fascinating and surprising that so many Norwegians, used to farming under very wet conditions, and where […]

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The early settling of Manitoba

Homesteaders exploring opportunities for settlement on the Canadian prairie west of Winnipeg, traveled along either the north or south branches of the Saskatchewan Trail. Prior to 1870 settlements in Manitoba were confined to river lots along the Red River and the Assiniboine River. Technological inventions and new agricultural practices in the decade from 1875 created

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Railway Avenue, Olds, Alberta, ca 1910, showing horses with buggies hitched, across the street from stores.

Scandinavian settlements in Central Alberta

When professor Arthur S. Morton published his book History of Prairie Settlement in 1938, he titled his fifth chapter: “Settlement follows the Railways, 1891-1901.” The railway lines which were completed between 1891 and 1896 came to have a clear direction on the stream of settlers into new areas.[1] The Calgary-Edmonton line was one of these

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Forward scouts in Central Alberta and Scandinavian settlements

The Scandinavian emigration to the United States and Canada has countless examples of chain migration, however, it was seldom a joint action with full transplantation of communities. The forward scout was a common feature in many cases. Scouts often investigated new possibilities in another location on behalf of a larger group. Family and neighbors followed

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