The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2002, Blaðsíða 17

Vol. 57 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
15
Icelanders Leave Dakota to
Pioneer in Alberta
by Rosa Benediktson
The following are excerpts from
speeches given by Rosa Benediktson:
The first Icelandic pioneers in Alberta
came chiefly from North Dakota. They
were the men that first broke and settled in
a country that then was wild and rugged,
but time and the hand of man has turned
this into a thriving community. Who
would have believed when looking over the
vast manless wilderness, that Icelanders
would be the first and have the biggest
share in making this land as it is today. It
now can be compared to any other com-
munity of the same age. The Icelanders
were all poor and what was worse, had
spent their best years and health in the Old
Country. After coming to this continent
they traveled from place to place and had to
work so hard.
The Icelanders moved here in 1888
from Pembina County, North Dakota.
There was one family, Olaflur Gudman, in
Calgary before that time. He likely came in
1887 and his father and brothers shortly
thereafter.
There were several reasons for people
wanting to move from the rich and fertile
Pembina County. They knew that Dakota
was a land of future prosperity and richness
that would repay their efforts and expenses
one thousand fold but it seemed like it
would take such a long time that some of
them would not make it through that diffi-
cult period.
Most of the Icelanders that immigrated
to Dakota were from either the Lake
Winnipeg area or from the Old Country.
They had come almost penniless and most
of them had to go heavily into debt to work
their land. They had to mortgage the land
and their possessions to get implements
and animals for farming. They could get the
loans but at very high interest rates. It was
impossible to repay the loans from their
small scale farming operations. It seemed to
be the same situation their forerunners,
some 874 settlers, had faced. They either
became slaves to the loan companies and
the money sharks or moved out. As before
many took the later way.
Another reason for the single men and
new arrivals from the Old Country to leave
Dakota was that most of the best land in
Pembina County was already taken up.
They wanted to try someplace else to
become independent. There were also some
that could not stand the cold dry climate.
These, among other reasons, were the rea-
sons that people wanted to leave Dakota.
In March of 1888 a meeting was called
to talk about leaving that spring. At the
meeting were about thirty people. The
main advocates were Olafur Olafson of
Espihole, Dr. Einar Jonasson and Sigurdur
Bjornson. They told people how dark the
outlook was to stay and how pressing it
was for some people to leave before they
lost everything. It was agreed to move away
that spring. Then they discussed where to
go. Most of them had their minds set on the
mild Pacific Coast. In their mind, the
panorama of the Pacific with the ocean,
mountains, valleys, bays and inlets, was a
magnet, without much consideration to the
costs and other obstacles to getting there.
Some of the more thoughtful men did not
think it advisable to move until they sent
someone out west to find a place and make
preparations. That man should travel at the
expense of those that intended to move.
The meeting elected Sigurdur Joshua
Bjornson for the trip. He was to go all the
way to the coast and look for a place for an