Tomorrow, Thursday Sept 23 at 03:45 a.m., the Skien/Telemark 2010 Delegation to Minneapolis, Bismarck, Minot and Norsk Høstfest in Minot leaves Skien to get flights from Torp (Sandefjord) and Amsterdam to Minneapolis.

Hilde Astrid Bjørntvedt Øvrebø is the official leader for the Skien Delegation to Minot in 2010. Hilde is a member of the Skien City Council & Board of Directors, and she represents the Christian Democratic Party.

Rolf Haugen, Retired Skien City Attorney, Honorary Ambassador for North Dakota & Honorary Citizen of Minot, is the one organizing the tour. This will be Rolf's 17th visit to Norsk Høstfest in Minot ND.

Erling Dahl is the Official Telemark County Representative.

Dawn Syvertsen in Telemark County Council has translated our Pre-project report "Telemark Heritage. Incoming tourism 2009".

The report is now available on our Telemark Heritage web.

Download the report here

Terje Mikalsen gave a speech in Skien City Hall on Aug 26. The audience consisted of business-people in Grenland together with people from Telemark County Council, Skien community, Vekst i Grenland and Made-in-Grenland. Topic for the meeting was business opportunities in the U.S., and mainly in the Midwest. Green economy was the key word.(more).

To help visitors find information about their roots does not always limit to Telemark. When Juven Tours from Fargo ND came to Skien in August, one of his guests, Mae R. Valencia from Black Creek in Wisconsin, hoped to see the church and the town where two of her anacestors were married. (more).

This summer we found more Ibsen-places over there, this time in Saskatchewan in Canada. On Highway 39, which goes from the U.S. border south east of Estevan and up to Moose Jaw, there was a small town called Ibsen. The town is no longer on the roadmaps, but we found it on an old map from the late 1960'ies.(more)

Rolf Haugen in Skien was honored with the Paul Harris Fellow Award in the Skien Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday June 16. Rolf Haugen is not a member of Rotary, and it is a special honor for a non-club member to receive this award. (more)

On Wednesday June 16 we had a meeting discussing opportunities in connection with our trip in Sept/Oct to Minneapolis, Minot and Bismarck. Present in the meeting at Klosterøya in Skien were representatives from Innovation Norway, Grenland Development, Made in Grenland, Skien community,Telemark Heritage and Oliven Reiser. Mr. Yngve Berntsen from Sandefjord came to the meeting to give information about the business and trade market in Minneapolis. (more)

2009 has been a good year for the Telemark Heritage web, with many visitors.(more).

We have received an article from our friend in Hadelandslaget, Dave Gunderson, about Olaf Olavsson Vinje, and the Legacy of his brother, Aasmund. Maybe this history is not too well known in Vinje, and in Telemark. You find the full history under Images and Articles on our web.

The Vinje Monument at St. Olaf Cemetery, 3 miles southeast of Dalton, MN. Olaf Olavssen Vinje, his wife Thea, and son Olaf are buried there. The cemetery is about one mile south of the former Vinje Farm. Photo: Dave Gunderson