A member of Norway’s royal family has visited northeast Iowa to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the first organized migration from Norway to the United States.
Crown Prince Haakon’s visit to Decorah today included a tour of the Vesterheim Norwegian-American museum and a ceremony at Luther College. During remarks at the college, the crown prince spoke about Leif Erikson, the Viking explorer believed to be the first European to reach North America.
“His voyage said something about us,” he said. “It said we that we were a people willing to sail into unknown territory, to risk the storms for the promise of something better.”
The crown prince said eight centuries later, that spirit was clear when 52 Norwegians set sail for America in 1825, in a boat called Restauration.
“Over the next century over 800,000 Norwegians would follow, one in three left their homeland. They came for land, for liberty, for a chance to live their faith and when they arrived they built communities right here in Iowa and across the Midwest,” he said. “They built churches and schools. They built lives and they built a bridge between our nations that still stands today.”
Crown Prince Haakon came to America after serving in Norway’s Navy and earned a degree political science from the University of California at Berkeley, where the prince said he learned from both the faculty and his fellow students. “We didn’t always agree, but we listened, we argued, we learned and that is the essence of a free society — the courage to exchange ideas without fear,” he said, to extended applause and cheers.
The 52-year-old son of Norway’s King Harald is the ninth member of Norway’s royal family to visit Decorah since 1939. Luther College awarded him an honorary doctorate. “Now I should confess that my father received this honorary doctorate at the early age of 28, so yes it took me a little longer, but as I stand before you today I like to think that I eventually caught up,” he said, to laughter.
Luther College is the first higher education institution founded in the U.S. by Norwegian immigrants. Crown Prince Haakon is leading a Norwegian delegation that will also make stops in Minneapolis tomorrow (Tuesday) and in New York City later this week.