By almost every measure, Danish emigrants to the United States were quick to join the mainstream of American life. Relatively few in number (only 371,258 came between 1820 and 1980), widely scattered in settlement, overwhelmingly Protestant, and generally attuned to the nation's political and economic systems, Danes were among the most rapidly assimilated of immigrants to America.
Within the past two decades, however, there has been a remarkable resurgence of interest in the Danish heritage in the Untied States, nowhere more visible than in two small, neighboring Iowa communities--Elk Horn and Kimballton. While scholars still debate the reasons for this revival of ethnic consciousness, many residents of these two farm villages point to one man and what was once widely considered his "crazy" idea of erecting an unusual historical monument--one that when built changed the future of both communities and created ripples across the entire nation.
Harvey Sornson's 'crazy' idea
Harvey Sornson (a corruption of the Danish surname Sorensen) has always been fascinated by windmills. Born to Danish immigrant parents and reared on a farm just east of Elk Horn, he has spent most of his eighty years farming near Kimballton. As he approached retirement age, restoration of old windmills became a hobby for him, and wherever he traveled, Sornson always looked for windmills.
During a 1975 trip to Denmark, Sornson found several magnificent nineteenth-century structures, giants that ground grain into flour in contrast to their much smaller and cheaper American counterparts that pumped water in the era before rural electrification. Seeing these Danish mills gave Sornson an idea: Why not buy one and ship it to Iowa where it could be restored and stand as a memorial to the Danish immigrants who had settled the area nearly a century before?
Upon returning, he broached the idea to friends and neighbors and found that few shared his enthusiasm. Some, he recalls, "thought I was nuts." But Sornson was not easily dissuaded. He sought out Warren Jacobsen, a highly successful farmer, who also, along with his wife, Gudrun, operated a real estate business in Elk Horn. Sornson's proposal intrigued Jacobsen, and he agreed to bring it before the Better Elk Horn Club (with a population of less than 750, Elk Horn has no Chamber of Commerce) at its July 1975 meeting. Those in attendance listened with polite interest as Jacobsen described the mill not only as a monument to the past but also as a potential tourist attraction. "Even then," Jacobsen remembers, "they could see agriculture would not continue to support every small town in the Corn Belt."
Not everyone was sold on the plan, however. Many believed the project was too big for a town the size of Elk Horn. Yet Jacobsen and Sornson persisted, and soon others joined their cause. The Iowa Development Commission and Iowa's Golden Southwest Tourism Council gave their endorsements, both organizations pointing to Elk Horn's proximity to I-80, one of the nation's major interstate thoroughfares. Others saw the mill as an appropriate way to celebrate America's bicentennial. Ultimately the blending of many elements, but particularly the widespread desire to honor the area's Danish heritage and the potential of developing tourism, won over many of the initial
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