Red River Girl: From Telemark to the Buffalo
On view through May 25, 2026
Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum
Decorah, Iowa
vesterheim.org
This exhibit, which explores the stories of the Thortvedt family, from Fyresdal, Telemark, to Glyndon, Minnesota, and the many miles between, is a collaboration between the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County and Vest-Telemark Museum.
After nine years in the United States, the Thortvedt family traveled more than 400 miles from Houston County to Clay County, Minnesota. As the Buffalo River Settlement sprang up around their farm, Levi Thortvedt and his daughter Orabel recorded their community’s history in drawings, paintings, photographs, letters, and journals.
Illustrated with Orabel’s art, “Red River Girl: From Telemark to the Buffalo” is a book published by West Telemark Museum in Norway. It contributes to a richer understanding of America’s immigrant history, particularly our understanding of Norwegian immigration to the Red River Valley of the North.
[Image: The Old Kassenborg Stone House in Yucatan Valley, south of Houston, Minnesota, as seen by Orabel Thortvedt in 1946. Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County, Thortvedt Family Papers.]
