A Place to Call Home: Norwegian Small Towns on the Western Prairie
Article from Vesterheim, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2013.
This article by Odd S. Lovoll discusses three towns in west-central Minnesota.
A long-standing interest in the country town and rural conditions induced Lovoll to make a systematic investigation of three “Norwegian” country towns in west-central Minnesota, published in 2006 as Norwegians on the Prairie: Ethnicity and the Development of the Country Town. The selected towns were Starbuck in Pope County, Benson in Swift County, and Madison in Lac qui Parle County. They were all, from the start, commercial centers and became urban in their social, cultural, and commercial design and function. A strong Norwegian presence has been a distinguishing characteristic throughout their history.
