Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Page 27

DANISH EMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA 17
The first Danes to set foot on Canadian soil were Captain
Jens Munk and his men, who landed on the Western bank of
the Hudson in 1619 during a voyage of exploration and wintered
there. All the 6 5 members of the expedition, with the exception of
Munk himself and two of his men, perished from cold and
scurvy, and his expedition was not followed up by any further
attempt at colonization.
Danish immigration in Canada in modern times has, with
few exceptions, been associated with the settlements founded there
by Danish farmers who came from the Middle West of the
U. S. A. Apart from two older settlements they all date from
the 2oth century.
Danish settlement in the Dominion has taken place under
conditions which in many respects correspond to those under
which the pioneers of the 1870’s and 1880’s began to cultivate
the prairies of the U. S. A. The Canadian winter is even severer
than that of the U. S. A., and immigrants are faced by the same
demands as to hardiness, and ability to stand very hard work
and to persevere in the face of appalling loneliness and economic
hardships as were the pioneers of the United States. For the
Danish emigrants of the 20th century this meant an even harder
ordeal than for the old pioneers, who brought with them from
the old country much more frugal habits than those which pre-
vail in present-day Denmark.
The Danish settlements in Canada have developed by a pro-
cess of organic growth: they began with a few families, who
were gradually joined by relatives and friends, until some of
them have attained populations of up to 1200 inhabitants.
The oldest Danish settlement in the Dominion is New Den-
mark in the St. John’s Valley in New Brunswick. When the first
Danes settled in this district in 1872 it was densely wooded.
Nowadays, it is a prosperous agricultural settlement with a popu-
lation of 800.
After 1900 a number of Danish settlements have grown up
in the Canadian prairie Provinces. In 1902 the Dannevirke settle-
ment was founded at Redvers in Saskatchewan. A Danish farmer
in North Dakota had lost some horses. Searching for them, he
found them in the vicinity of Redvers; he liked the country,
bought land, and was gradually followed by others. In Alberta,
Danish farmers from Iowa founded the settlement of Standard,
now the largest and most flourishing Danish colony in Canada,
Le Nord, 1942, 1