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. 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. For more information, click here.
