Travel Tuesday on Good Day Dakota brings you to the Scandinavian Heritage Park.
Its got a beautiful landscape and is the perfect place to picnic, but there’s a lot of cultural significance behind the park, too.
(Marion Anderson/Office Manager, Scandinavian Heritage Park) “They can’t hardly believe what’s here once they get here, they think it’s quite fabulous.”
Marion Anderson is talking about tourists, but even for Minot residents, there’s a lot to see at the Scandinavian Heritage Park.
(Anderson) “It’s a beautiful park. Even if they aren’t Scandinavian, it’s still a beautiful place to visit and if you are Scandinavian it’s a good place to get back to your roots. This is really a work of art by many people in this area.”
Maintained almost completely by volunteers, it’s believed to be the only outdoor museum in the world with dedication to all five Nordic countries.
The biggest eye-catcher is an exact replica of the Gol Stave Church in Norway.
Not far behind it is the most-recognized Swedish symbol in the world, a Dala Horse.
(Anderson) “This one is very tall. This one was made this big just for this park.”
And since there’s something to represent each country, there’s a Danish Windmill, a statue of Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson, and a Finnish sauna- which I learned is often mispronounced as sauna.
These are just to name a few, as there is much more to see and learn here at the park.
(Anderson) “It’s very indicative of the people that settled here. Not just here but in the entire state because there are people here from all of those countries here in the state of North Dakota.”
The park is free to access seven days a week.
