Viking Magazine - September 2016 - 23

Check out " Across the Deep Blue Sea:
The Saga of Early Norwegian Immigrants "
by award-winning historian Odd S. Lovoll in
English at mnhspress.org and in Norwegian
at spartacus.no.
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The quarantined were released when
considered well. Medical knowledge at
that time was at an elemental stage and
the immigrants themselves arrived in
poor physical condition.
Many immigrants landed in Québec
penniless and needed help and care.
The Canadian government, as reported
by Buchanan, incurred heavy expenses
as it assisted the indigent poor " of
almost every Norwegian ship to reach
the American frontier. " At the end of
the 1860s, the Canadian government
limited its assistance to immigrants
whose fi nal destination was within
Canada.
THE COMPETITION
FOR SETTLERS
Although Québec served as a corridor
south to the United States for most
Norwegian immigrants, there were
efforts to create Canadian colonies of
Norwegian immigrants. Many initially
settled in the Eastern Townships at Bury,
east of the town of Sherbrooke, in the
late 1850s. The best known Norwegian
colony was located on the Gaspé
Peninsula. The fi rst settlers arrived in
1860 and nearly all left in 1863.
Canada's plans for Norwegian
colonization failed for two major
reasons. The Canadian land system
was less liberal than the American land
system, and the United States provided
more economic opportunity.
The states of the Upper Midwest -
Wisconsin setting the tone and later
joined by Minnesota, Iowa and others
- engaged in persistent recruitment
of European immigrants. People were
needed to settle and clear the land, to
build the railroads, factories and towns.
While Canada initially lost out in
the competition for settlers, beginning
in the 1880s the Canadian prairie
provinces became magnets for landseeking
Norwegians coming directly
from Norway and from the American
Upper Midwest. Norwegians became
the largest Scandinavian population
in Canada.
No matter when or where
Norwegians landed in North America,
they all sought a better life in a new
land. The journey was hard, but tracing
their routes highlights a valued piece of
Scandinavian cultural history.
15,000
12,000
9,000
6,000
3,000
1866
1868
1870
1872
1874
sonsofnorway.com VIKING SEPTEMBER 2016 23
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Viking Magazine - September 2016

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