A fact-based drama about the first Norwegian settlers in Wright County will be given on June 26, 28 and 29 in Ottestad, Hedmark, Norway at the Norsk Utvandrermuseum. Presented at the museum’s outdoor emigration history park, the play is part of kingdom’s nationwide observance of the 200th anniversary of the start of the emigration of 900,000 Norwegians to the United States. The mass migration started in 1825 when first boat-load of Norwegians left Stavanger on July 4 and arrived in the Port of New York in early October of 1825.
The Norwegians in the play get to the Belmond Township area in the spring of 1869, 12 years before the City of Belmond was incorporated. Coming from Galesburg, Wisconsin and crossing the Mississippi at LaCrosse with horses and covered wagons, they arrived eight days later in Wright County. They settled on land purchased at auction in Clarion. The party numbered 12. There were three families and one single man. All were from the Ringsaker area of Hedmark. That summer they dug wells, lived in their wagons and built winter shelters, cutting trees in Hickory Grove.
The play opens on July 4, 1870 and by then other Norwegians from Hedmark had joined them. In a short time, fields are under cultivation, all-weather homes are constructed, barns are raised, and a church is built and so is a country school. The play includes the trials and tribulations of pioneer life and celebrates the first wedding in Norwegian Belmond. There is original music, there is ethnic humor, there is social commentary, there is dancing, there are period costumes, there are horses and wagons and more. The play nears its end on May 17th, 1880. By that time, the immigrants are using more English and thinking of themselves as Americans in the Great State of Iowa and not as strangers in some foreign land. The play also notes nostalgia for the old country and the people they left behind. The playwright is Tor Karseth.