The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2002, Qupperneq 45

Vol. 57 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
129
Greetings from Salt Lake City!
by Eric Olafson
Greetings to the people of Canada of
Icelandic descent from your "friendly
neighbours to the south" Salt Lake City,
home of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
These games and the attention brought to
Salt Lake City make this a good occasion to
introduce the readers to the Icelandic set-
tlers in Utah and our Olympic experience.
The Utah Icelanders
Icelandic Canadians are all familiar
with Gimli Manitoba—the ‘Capital of
New Iceland’. And certainly, there are
Icelandic Canadians in settlements large
and small across Canada. But, having lived
in Salt Lake City for the past 14 years, I can
speak with some authority on the lesser-
known subject of Icelandic Americans and
specifically those living in Spanish Fork,
Utah.
While Gimli is the largest Icelandic set-
tlement, Spanish Fork is the first Icelandic
settlement in North America. Starting in
1855, Icelanders, primarily from the
Westman Islands, began immigrating to
Utah. This was the consequence of
Mormon efforts to proselytize the stub-
born and independent Icelanders. The
overwhelming efforts of a very few
Mormon missionaries did however result
in the emigration, over 50 years, of 410
Icelanders. A story based on these events is
told in a book by Haldor Laxness called
‘Paradise Reclaimed’. It's a book that's
highly regarded by Icelanders—it is very
difficult to find an English translation,
however we have a copy in Utah.
It was strange to arrive in Salt Lake
City 14 years ago. Back then; I referred to
it as "planet Utah". Now, we call it home.
First, we were struck by the significant per-
centage of Scandinavian people—by our
haphazard measure even more than in
Minnesota. During this fifty years, over
100,000 emigrated from Europe and most-
ly Scandinavia. There is a Christiansen,
Johansson, Jacobson or Olson everywhere
you turn. The Icelanders were specifically
directed to Spanish Fork, a community 60
miles south of Salt Lake City that features,
among other natural attributes, unspeak-
ably harsh winds prevailing out of the
canyons. The conditions and circumstances
facing those first Icelanders in Spanish
Fork are not dissimilar to those in Gimli in
1876.
Upon returning from our annual pil-
grimage to Gimli for the Icelandic Festival,
Margaret Sigmundson informed me that
Icelanders settled first in Utah and then
Gimli. That fact, and a few back issues of
The Icelandic Canadian were all that was
needed for an introduction to Clark
Thorsteinson, at the time the Honourary
Icelandic Consul for Utah. Clark is a great
guy who, over a few years, introduced our
family to everyone in the Icelandic com-
munity in Utah. Visitors from Iceland and
Canada were treated to Clark's hospitality,
and on several occasions so was I, the token
Icelander from Manitoba. It was great to
have this connection.
I have to share my complete admira-
tion for these people of Utah. While grow-
ing up in Manitoba, I took our Icelandic
background for granted. Indeed, the notion
of visiting Iceland seemed almost irrelevant
— didn't we live in a part of Iceland? The
Icelandic aspect of our upbringing was so
pervasive that it was invisible. Only on
arrival in Utah did I begin to appreciate the
passion for this culture and heritage that
comes from separation. Utah Icelanders
treasure their Icelandic heritage. They put
people on planes to Iceland each summer in
numbers statistically disproportionate to
the Icelandic population anywhere in the
world. People learn Icelandic at Brigham