HISTORICAL PLACES

The Emigrants

Karl Oskar and Kristina are fictitious characters portrayed in The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land and The Last Letter Home, a trilogy written by the Swedish author, Vilhelm Moberg. They symbolize migration to America by Swedish peasants, who settled in the Chisago Lakes Area, about the middle of the nineteenth century.

Correspondingly, at the water's edge in Karlshamn, Sweden, a statue by Axel Olsson of the Emigrants: Karl Oskar looking out toward the sea and the land of Minnesota beyond, and Kristina with her head turned toward her home in Ljuder parish.

 

The Emigrant Stone

Around the stone one ploughed in circles
The ears of corn caressed the unmovable
Here the children sat, broke the bread of poverty
Here the young ones met, made the decision
to change the weight of stone
for the lightness of dreams:

America, Minnesota Territory, Ki-Chi-Saga.

 After 100 years it was deciphered
the memory of those
who broke away from the Kingdom of Stone.
One of their sons followed the tracks
wrote the Books of the Emigrants.

 Also the stone was broken off from timelessness
stands now here, uprooted
like the pioneers in their time.

 A remembrance rock
of the people who
traded the stone for golden harvests
and the memory of a sun-warmed slab
against the child's naked feet.

Ulf Beijbom

This Boulder is a gift from Duvemala Sweden

Nya Duvemala

The Karl Oskar House

Overlooking the Ki-Chi-Saga lakes and Glader Cemetary, 
this is the fictional home of Moberg's Karl Oskar and Kristina. 
It is now open as a Swedish heritage museum

Glader Cemetary

The first burial ground for pioneers of the Chisago Lakes Area 1855-1916.

It is also regarded as the fictional burial ground of Karl Oskar and Kristina.

WWI Memorial

In commemoration of the first reserve unit in the United States to be called into active service in World War I. 

Fifty-three men comprising the Eighth Division of the Minnesota Naval Militia were mustered in immediately to the north of this spot on the 7th day of April, 1917.

   Officers  
S.D. Young, 
Lieutenant Commander		 Karl C. Victor, 
Yeoman		 Wilbur Porter, 
Bugler
C.S. Williams, 
Lieutenant Jr. Grade		 Carl Henrikson, Quartermaster Harold Anderson, Printer
L.D. Williams, 
Chief Gunners Mate		 Wallace Larson, 
Coxswain		 James Smith, Blacksmith

     Seamen    
Raymond Andrews Archie Ruffcorn Lloyd Campbell William Wallace Roy Nelson
Lewis Aphelin Henry Elfstrom Ludwig Kroonblawd Edward Eastlund Walter Bartley
Clarence Tuttle Frank Magnuson Arthur Larson Hjalmer Larson Hjalmer Hawkinson
Melver Person Joe Roge Angus Otis Harry Matson Elow Jackson
Roy Lamson Abner Hammerberg Emerine Peterson Clarence Ingelson Roy Hanson
Andrew Porter Gust Fally Edwin Scott Arthur Stenberg Steve Foley
Joe Keene Reynold Lindstrom Walfred Stromberg Goodwin Sandgren Irving Wilin
Walter Peterson Carl Benson Dave Torddor Paul Nelson George Rogers
A.J. Picotte Sidney Bergren John Vollary Herman Bruce  

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