It was a tough trip, with rough sea crossings and treks across an unknown, often hostile land. Today, these immigrants' stories of struggles and triumphs come to life in museums and centers across the state.
Visitors can experience how immigrants' customs and culture left an indelible mark on the state.
In nineteenth-century Norway, the oldest son of a farmer inherited the land, leaving other sons and daughters with few options and much hardship. So they, like other Europeans, headed to the New World, and many ended up in the rolling hills of northeast Iowa, which was open to homesteading in the mid-1800s. Though Decorah, home of the Vesterheim, was also settled by English immigrants, Norwegians soon outnumbered them. We use the Norwegian immigrant story to tell the whole immigrant story. The main building, built in 1877 as an elegant hotel, is organized around the immigrant theme, starting with life in Norway, then the journey to the New World and the Norwegians' assimilation in America.