Scandinavian Heritage Park

On Friday, we continued driving east. It seemed like we were in Montana forever. Montana is a very long state. We finally crossed into North Dakota. One of the first towns we came to in North Dakota was Williston. We were both very familiar with Williston from our oilfield days. Williston is a big oilfield town, and when working for Gulf Oil, we heard a lot about it as we had a field office there. There were signs of oilfield production everywhere, with rigs, pumps, service companies, etc.

Pumping Jack

Oil rigs

We also passed through Rugby, North Dakota, which claims to be the geographic center of North America.

At this point, the main goal is to get home, but we had yet one last stop to make. In Minot, North Dakota, we stopped to visit The Scandinavian Heritage Park. This park celebrates the heritage of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden with buildings, statues, and monuments. 

Overlooking the Park

There is a full scale replica of a Norwegian Church, a Finnish sauna, a Danish windmill, a Swedish Dala horse, and statues of Hans Christian Andersen, Leif Erikson, and Sondre Norheim who is a famous Scandinavian skiier.

Norwegian Church

Front of church

Inside of church

Finnish Sauna

Danish Windmill

Swedish Dala Horse

There was also an international display of flags. Of course there were flags from each of the five countries, along with a US and a Canadian flag. The flags are illuminated at night.

And one last sign that's a little perplexing, at least to me.

I'm not sure what Lutefisk fishing is. I'll have to ask my son-in-law, John the fisherman. Also, not sure who or what Ole is - apparently some type of authority!