Sondre Norheim Gravesite Commemoration Ceremony
| Sondre Norheim Gravesite Commemoration Ceremony | Norsk Høstfest informs: The Sondre Norheim Gravesite Commemoration Ceremony will be Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011, 9:00 am at the Norway Lutheran Church & Cemetery, Denbigh, ND. |
| The Sondre Norheim Gravesite Commemoration Ceremony will be Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011, 9:00 am at the Norway Lutheran Church & Cemetery, Denbigh, ND. Sondre Norheim was born in Morgedal, Telemark county, Norway, June 10, 1825. He immigrated to the United States in 1884 with his wife and five of their six children. After a brief stay at Oslo, MN he came to what is now McHenry County and filed on a homestead near Villard Post Office.He left Norway with a dream of finding a better living in America. Sondre was a modest man, so even his neighbors in North Dakota did not know that his name was legend in Norway.Sondre Norheim, recognized as the Father of Modern Skiing, invented a new ski binding and introduced the Telemark and Christiania turns. Norheim decided the bindings had to be firmly attached to his feet, so he took thin shoots from birch roots, soaked them in hot water, and twisted them together so they would fit around his heel. Now he could twist and turn on his skis and fly through the air like a bird. This was the humble beginnings of modern ski bindings.Norheim died in 1897. He went to his grave a virtual unknown. Although his place of burial is recorded in the Norway Lutheran Cemetery records, his grave went unmarked for many years. A granite boulder and plaque were dedicated and placed on his grave in a memorial ceremony June 12, 1966.Norway Lutheran Cemetery is only five miles from where he homesteaded in North Dakota.Directions to the ceremony are available from the Norsk Høstfest office.A statue of Sondre Norheim is located in the Scandinavian Heritage Park, 1020 South Broadway, Minot, ND. An identical statue was presented to the city of Morgedal, Norway in 1988 by the Friends of Minot Club of Skien, Norway and the Norsk Høstfest Association of Minot. |