New York Harbor with sailing ships in 1825, painted by the artist William Guy Wall.

First organized emigration from Norway

Cleng Peerson og tidlig emigrasjon, Innvandring, utvandring og migrasjonskjeder, Migrasjonskjede Cleng Peerson / By

The first organized emigration from Norway to the USA was triggered by the persecution of a small Quaker sect in Stavanger around 1820. The Quakers in Stavanger, western Norway, felt harassed by the state church, by the authorities, and people in the local community. The Quakers and religious freedom. During the Napoleonic Wars, from 1807 to 1814, the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway was at war with Great Britain.

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Opening of the Erie Canal, in 1825. A barge filled with people waving at onlookers on the shore.

No milk and honey for Norwegians in Western New York

Cleng Peerson og tidlig emigrasjon, Migrasjonskjede Cleng Peerson / By

On October 21, 1825, most of the Norwegian emigrants from the sloop Restauration boarded a steamship from New York to Albany. From Albany they traveled west through the region of the brand-new canal, which was creating a direct route to Lake Erie from New York City. Only five days later, the whole length of the

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From the Cleng-Peerson-monument at the cemetary of «Our Savior’s Lutheran Church» in the Norse district, Bosque County, Texas. The monument was unveiled before Christmas 1886.

Who was Cleng Peerson, the father of Norwegian Emigration?

Cleng Peerson og tidlig emigrasjon, Migrasjonskjede Cleng Peerson / By

Just before Christmas in 1886 the Cleng Peerson monument was unveiled in the cemetery of “Our Savior’s Lutheran Church” at Norse in Bosque County, Texas. The monument was dedicated to “Cleng Peerson, the Father of Norwegian Emigration to America”. It had the following inscription in Norwegian and English: “Cleng Pierson, the Pioneer of Norse Emigration

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The landscape they left, Byneset in Trøndelag in 2024, is still a green, rural landscape with privately owned small farms. There are no longer cotters' places on the farms, and there have been many mergers, creating more viable units.

Emigrants from Byneset, Trøndelag, ended up in Montana

Innvandring, utvandring og migrasjonskjeder, Mining, sheep and cattle, Norwegian immigrants in Montana, Norwegian immigrants in the mining industry / By

Before the Civil War, emigrants from Norway usually crossed the Atlantic on board a Norwegian sailing ship from a Norwegian harbor to New York or Quebec. This mode of transportation changed radically in the 1870s. Trans-Atlantic steamship companies from British ports offered faster journeys. A steamship crossed the Atlantic in less than half the time

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A rushing river in the Absaroka-Beartooth WIlderness, Montana. Along the river grow red clover, bluebells and daisies, like the immigrants knew from Norway.

Time to tell the story of early Norwegian immigrants in Montana

Mining, sheep and cattle, Norwegian immigrants in Montana, Norwegian immigrants in the mining industry / By

It is high time to tell the story of early Norwegian immigration to Montana. In his excellent book from 1958, Kenneth Bjork, West of the Great Divide. Norwegian Migration to the Pacific Coast, 1847-1893, wrote that important research themes such as the “movement of immigrants from region to region in the New World have been

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Sheep grazing along the Musselshell, 2019.

Early sheep industry in Montana. The big picture

Mining, sheep and cattle, Norwegian immigrants in Montana, Norwegian immigrants in the mining industry / By

Many people have written about the history of the Montana cattle industry. In comparison, historical research and writing on the sheep industry in Montana is scant. The stories of “the great sheep trails from California and Oregon have lain in deep obscurity,” wrote Edward N. Wentworth in 1941, while the trails from Texas “with its

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Map of southwestern counties in Montana, which shows county borders and rivers and towns in 1890. It is a cropped version of a larger map, that shows some sites mentioned in this article.

Gold discovery led to the establishment of Meagher County, Montana

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Late in the fall of 1864 gold was discovered in a gulch on the west-facing slopes of the Big Belt Mountains. The small stream flowing through the gulch drained into Canyon Ferry Lake. The gold was discovered by four former Confederate soldiers who were traveling south from Fort Benton on the Missouri River. Their destination

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THe front page of the family history of the Voldseth family, who owns the original Grande ranch.

From the middle of Norway to Musselshell Valley, Montana

Drømmen om egen gård, Innvandring, utvandring og migrasjonskjeder, Norwegian immigrants in Montana, Norwegian immigrants in the mining industry / By

Two Grande brothers from Trondheim, the middle of Norway, in 1866 set out on a long and winding journey to the United States. They crossed fjords and oceans, followed rivers, roads and trails over plains, valleys and mountain ranges before they ended up in the grassy Musselshell Valley, Montana, in 1878. The journey was not

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