Lögberg-Heimskringla - 27.11.1992, Qupperneq 6

By Shírley Rosenqulst
Don Buchholz, resident manager of
The Clearíng, and DNR Lake Michigan
District Park Supervisor Dan Wagner
met recently and due to their mutual
agreement a historic treasure is now
back home where it belongs. What trea-
sure? And where does it belong?
Imagine a great stone hall in Iceland;
tall mullioned windows, soaring
beamed ceilings adorned with tiered
chandeliers — each tier a rack of
antlers, a massive stone fireplace that
could seat four men side by side at a
table.
Now imagine the furniture that
would complement such a place. It
would have to be handmade by a
skilled Icelandic craftsman. The wood
must be the finest oak, its proportions
heroic. Each piece would be elaborately
carved, many with scenes from Norse
mythology. A fairy tale? No — it’s very
real and far closer to home than you
may think.
Just a short boat ride from Wash-
ington Island’s Jackson Harbor lies
Rock Island, where stands Chester
Thordarson’s marvelous stone boat-
house topped by the great hall and
library. Today the island is a state park,
but during the years between 1910 and
1945 it was the pride and joy of
Iceland-bom Chicago business tycoon
Chester Thordarson. It was Iceland in
microcosm and it was his!
Thordarson was a self-made man.
With little formal education he rose to
be head of a successful electrical com-
pany. He was an electrical genius with
inventions including a million watt
transformer that won him gold medals
at two Expositions and an ignition coil
for Henry Ford’s cars that made him a
millionaire and enabled him to build
his tiny Icelandic Kingdom on Rock
Island.
Thordarson had two main interests
in life. The first was electricity, the sec-
ond was books. He began collecting
books while young and poor but before
it was complete his collection num-
bered over 11,000 volumes, including
many rare editions today owned by the
University of Wisconsin and valued at
over a million dollars.
In 1941 Thordarson brought his
whole collection of books to the great
hall on Rock Island and converted it
into a magnificent library. He brought
to the USA a skilled Icelandic wood-
crafter, Halldor Einarsson, to create
very special furniture which would
enhance the great hall and “set off” the
book collection.
The massive handmade desk resembles a king’s throne.
There were two long, leather topped
tables which could each seat 10 people
on lavishly carved chairs. Words could
be looked up in a dictionary set upon a
beautifully carved stand. One could
curl up with a book in the comer of a
seven foot long, leather upholstered
settee whose back, arms and sides were
heavily carved. Crowning the whole
collection was a massive desk over six
feet long, with a thick glass top and a
chair resembling a king’s throne — all
elaborately carved and much admired
by Chester’s friends and associates.
After Thordarson’s death in 1945
the estate was used less and less until
finally in 1964 it was acquired by the
state of Wisconsin for a state park.
Some of the fumiture was sold at auc-
tion to a wealthy Milwaukee party,
where it stayed until 1989. At that time
it was given to The Clearing, that lovely
school for the arts, crafts and humani-
ties on the bluff overlooking Green Bay
waters in the town of Ellison Bay. The
school was at first delighted to receive
such a treasure but it soon became evi-
dent that the heroic proportion of the
pieces was just more than the rooms at
The Clearing could accommodate.
Reluctantly it was decided that other
plans would have to be made for the
fumiture and that is where our happy
ending begins.
The Clearing board of directors
made the very wise decision to keep the
collection intact rather than sell it
piece-meal. It was put into storage at
the home of one of the directors and
there it waited while ideas and propos-
als came and went. Finally the seed of
an idea was bom. Was there a way for
the fumiture to go home?
The DNR was contacted and the
seed planted. After more waiting and
several more meetings the DNR came
up with a plan to restore the great hall,
Congratulations Krístinn
Kristinn Guðjónsson, editor of
ICCT Newsletter, is a Doctoral
student in Geography at the
Universty of Toronto. He came from
Iceland to study and has been living in
Mississauga with his wife Helga
Þorsteinsdóttir and their daughter
Rósa for the past two years.
The Canadian Association of
Geographers, Ontario Division has an
essay competion based on doctoral or
masters theses. Kristinn won the 1992
masters award.
His thesis was entitled: “Hum-
mocks on the Fosheim, Peninsula,
Ellesmere Island, Northwest Terri-
tories.” In the thesis he describes and
explains the origin and development
of a particular type of hummock. That
is a phenomenon that was previously
thought to have been formed by frost
action. Research that Kristinn carried
out in the summer of 1991 and spring
of 1992, indicated that it is a result of
Niveo-aeolian processes.
CourtesylCCT
now to be known as Viking Hall. The
Clearing board of directors and the
DNR were able to arrive at a mutually
advantageous agreement. The Clearing
allowed the fumiture to be sold for just
half of its $30,000 appraised value.
They then made the DNR a gift of the
remaining half of the appraised valua-
tion. The State of Wisconsin Natural
Resources Board then presented The
Clearíng with a certificate of apprecia-
tion, given on behalf of the citizens of
Wisconsin for the generous contribu-
tion of historic and cultural significance
to Rock Island State Park.
One might think that here the story
ends, but there is frosting on the cake.
Over the years the furniture has
become a bit in need of some help. The
National Park Service has a facility for
refurbishing historic articles at Harper’s
Ferry in Viiginia. They have offered to
put Chester’s fumiture back into tip-top
shape. Until arrangements for this oper-
ation are completed, the fumiture will
be on display in Viking Hall, atop the
boathouse on Rock Island — Home —
where it belongs!
To help achieve their goal of restora-
tion the DNR is actively seeking articles
that may once have been part of the
Thordarson estate. If you can help with
this, they want to hear from you. Please
call Dan Wagner at 868-3705 (Wis-
consin) and help the happy ending to
be even more complete.
Submitted by Hrund Skulason and
Thora Halldorson.
Beautiful stone forms the boat house on Rock Island.
Icelandic content on page 8
‘The beginning was to hamess the farm brook’
The beginning was to hamess the
farm brook, said Jón Sigurgeirsson
inventor and farmer at Árteigur in
Kaldakinn, S-Þingeyjar County in
Iceland. He along with his sons makes
turbines at the farm, and exports to
Greenland and the Faeroe Islands.
It all started when he was 8 years
old. On a visit to nearby Húsavík his
mother, on his insistence, got a permis-
sion for him to see a new water driven
turbine that produced electricity.
When he came home he started experi-
menting and at the age of 10 or 12 he
had hamessed the brook to drive the
butter churn (every young person’s
Donations to
Lögberg-Heimskringla Inc.
Jón Sigurðsson Chapter IODE....$100.
In memory ofDr. RayHaugen, from
a Friend.....................$70.
In memory oflhura Bjamesen, from
INL, Gimli, MB...............$25.
M. Partridge, Surrcy, BC.....$12.55
<7Ua+tJz4j,auJ
dream). Over the years he has pro-
duced 70 water driven turbines in sizes
from 6 volts to 250 volts.
Still operating from the farm in
Northem Iceland, he has involved two
of his sons, the third one taking care of
the farm. It has been a controlled
growth, but the future seems bright
and now in his 70’s he enjoys seeing
his sons flying all over the place (in
their own plane) servicing the many
different things he has invented and
made to make life and farming easier.
Bkfft
Donations to the
Baldursson Fund
Robert V. Oleson, Winnipeg, MB
Erling Bjarnason, Vancouver, BC
Anonymous
Mr. & Mrs. Cronshaw, Gimli, MB
Mr. & Mrs. Henrikson, Vancouver, BC
Mrs. Bea Sharpe, Winnipeg, MB
Jonina Eaman, Edmonton, AB
M. Partridge, Surrey, BC
Ua+tkyo-U'.
6 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 27. nóvember 1992
Going home: A Heritage returns