INSTALLMENT
#14
[Day 20, Thursday, July 13, 2000]
Peg & Keith
Wheeler's Norway trip report, Summer 2000
Visit to
Gjesdal and Sandnes areas - Tour Gjesdal, Madland Farm, History Group at Lima Farm Bygdatun,
Seldal Farm, Høle.
Kristian
was off and away early to get his firewood with his pickup and trailer. He insisted that we use his car on this day
for our quest to learn something more about the "other side" of
Keith's Norwegian Ancestors. By now,
hopefully everyone is familiar with Keith's Jacob Slogvik. After Jacob arrived in America he married a
young girl named Serena (or Serine) who also came on the sloop
Restoration. Her father was originally
from the Madland farm in what is now Gjesdal
kommune; her mother was
from just north of there on the Seldal farm in Sandnes
kommune. Both these areas are southeast of Stavanger
and we briefly visited the Seldal area with cousin Ernst on the 4th
of July. Before traveling to Norway
Keith had tried to contact anyone from these areas who might have knowledge of,
or interest in, these ancestors. Two
individuals responded back: one, Rolf Hetland, is involved with the history
group in Gjesdal and offered to take us to the Madland farm and meet with
his group; the second, Gunleif Seldal, also wanted to meet us and share
information on the Seldal family which he is researching.
During
the past few days Kristian had helped us arrange to meet with these two
individuals. We drove down Highway 13,
to the south this time, through more strikingly beautiful terrain. Passing the turnoff to the famous Pulpit
Rock (we'll talk more about this later), we went over a granite rock mountain
summit were we then started getting glimpses of the dramatic and the famous
Lysefjord below. Passing a new very
high bridge that crosses the Lysefjord, we soon came to the ferry terminal at Oanes. Here we would leave the car in the parking
lot and take the ferry to Lauvvik where Highway 13 continues on to the
west. We were to meet Rolf Hetland and Gunleif
Seldal when we got off the ferry on the Lauvvik side.
We
were interested in not being late, so we were a little too early (by one ferry
cycle). This gave us a chance to look
around on both sides of this ferry run.
This is a fascinating and beautiful area in itself. Here the majestic Lysefjord begins about
midway down the Høgsfjord. The ferry we would soon be taking used to have a triangular route connecting the
3 towns and points on this "T" intersection of fjords. The new bridge we just mentioned connects
Oanes on the north to Forsand on the south.
To replace the ferry crossing to the west, the world's first floating
tunnel is planned to connect Oanes and Lauvvik. [For more on this tunnel, check
out: http://www.ntnu.no/gemini/1998-01E/36.html ]
Both
gentlemen on the Lauvvik side were prompt and they were able to identify us
readily -- we must have looked out of place.
We made a round of introductions and Gunleif explained that he had been
away from home for two days and had to return there some distance away to get
some papers for us, but he would meet
up with us later. We joined Rolf in his
car and drove mostly south, past the upper part of the Seldal farm to the town
of Oltedal where we stopped at the "spinneri" (spinning
mill). It happened to be closed that
day, but we were able to stop at the tourist outlet store. Peg bought some yarn in the variegated color
scheme of blues, golds, and magentas she had been noticing throughout
Norway. Keith found a sweater to buy
for our daughter, but we didn't want to spend very much time at a tourist store
on this trip, so we made our purchases and returned to the car. [Check their site out at: http://www.gjestal.no/om_e.htm ]
From
here we drove east to the bottom end of Høgsfjord and then southeast down the Dirdal
valley. Along this road were
monuments that were related to WWII activities. It was in this area that Rolf's father had fought the
Germans. Rolf further shared that his
father, like many other older Norwegians, still holds hard feelings against
Germany for the activities of WWII.
Keith could understand this because his brother was a Pearl Harbor
survivor and still has similar strong feelings toward Japan.
We
next came to Byrkjedalstunet, a restaurant and candle factory and
outlet. The 500 square meter shop had
probably the largest variety of colors and sizes of candles known to man. It was impressive. [Check it out: http://www.byrkjedalstunet.no/lys.htm ]
Across the street was a reconstruction of an old summer mountain farm
setting. There were goats and sod
roofed structures with old tools and implements. [Check this site out for
photos; no English text: http://www.byrkjedalstunet.no/setertun.htm ]
Next
up and out of the valley we headed toward the southwest to Gloppedal Scree
(we called it "Valley of the Rocks" - a scree is an accumulation of
rocky rubble) Here HUGE (think really
HUGE -- the size of cars and buildings) boulders had fallen from the cliffs
into the valley. Rolf told us two
versions of the origin of this phenomena; one folk lore and one
geological. We liked the one where an
evil farm was punished by the gods and all that could be heard was the rooster
crowing far below (presumably from beneath the boulders.) [Check out this site
for some good photos, but text is not in English: http://www.byrkjedalstunet.no/gloppedal.htm or
check this page for a description in English: http://www.subtech.no/RogBase/bjerheim.htm#Gloppedalsura Scroll up or down on this page for more
photos and info on this area south of the Madland farm.]
Norwegians
are proud about the WWII battle that took place here. A small group of 250 Norwegian soldiers took on two battalions of
Germans (800) in one skirmish and kept
them from advancing on Dirdal. 44
Germans and one Norwegian fell during this battle.
While
we seemed to have left the fjord country, there were still numerous lakes to
add blue reflections to the already majestic scenery of green hills and white
boulders and cliffs. We were traveling
in a southwesterly direction towards the major highway 18 which would take us
north toward Stavanger and out of Bjerkreim kommune and back in to Gjesdal
kommune. Just before we reached the
town of Ålgård, we turned right, heading out a narrower paved road that would
end at the Madland
farm. Rolf had made arrangements to
meet a local farmer who was familiar with the old Madland place. Rolf pulled up to the main farm in this
area. Here we met the person who farms
most of this area; he was to be our tour guide. Rolf would interpret for us.
We walked down the country land toward Madland Lake and the old Madland
farm house. It was a fine summer day
and we were accompanied by the farmer's stock dog. We passed two other homes; one was a summer place and the
farmer's father lives in the other. The
Madland home itself is also a vacation home, but it is in excellent
repair. However, the owner was away
that day and had taken the keys, so we couldn't go inside to see the restoration
work that had been done.
<Old
Madland farm house - farmer on left, Rolf on right - dog at the ready.
This
is the house where Keith's third great grandfather, Tormod Madland, was born in
1780. His family had lived in this
house for three generations before his birth.
That means that probably parts of the house were built around 1700 or
before. Other ancestors of Tormod were
the first recorded owners of this farm and this was in the mid 1500's to about
the mid 1600's. The setting of this
lovely farm was idyllic in that there was a stream running beside it and the
near horizon was of a fine lake and sky giving it a genuine pastoral sense of
peacefulness. Attached to one end of
the house was a barn and animal shed.
These were open and we were able to inspect the ancient notched and
pegged timbers used in the construction.
Again we were impressed at how the well maintained exterior could mask
such an ancient wooden structure.
Just across the small door yard
was a stunning out building whose foundation and most of its thick walls were
of large loose stacked stone. This was
a huge building probably a combination barn and hay storage. Again, the roof was framed with ancient
poles, however, a more modern corrugated roof had been placed over the old roof
planking. On the south end of this
building, was a "setting rock" of particular note. Both of us had to sit upon it and we each
found it extremely comfortable because of its contour. The farmer suggested that Tormod's mother
probably held him on her lap while she sat here in this protected sunny
location.
<Stone outbuilding with sitting rock behind
Keith - farmer on right.>
Before we left, we took a
brief drive through a couple of locked gates up a steep dirt road to some upper
grazing fields from where we could look down on the farm and the surrounding
countryside. Above and around us were
many sheep and on a distant hill, we could hear (and see if we looked closely)
the farmer's wife bringing in the cows for milking.
<Madland Lake and
farm area - old farm house is in the trees in center foreground - creek follows
horizontal line of trees on right.
We
left Madland and drove back to the west where we stopped at the old but well
kept Gjesdal church. Here we were shown
the inside of this pleasant church by a friendly local lady and church
member. Keith and Rolf then inspected
some of the adjacent cemetery. Of
course there were many "Madlands" buried here, but we had no time to
search for any of Keith's distant relatives.
We were now late for our rendezvous with the history group.
Skirting
around the attractive Lima Lake, it was only a short distance to Limagarden
Bygdatun on the edge of Ålgård.
This is a farm that has been turned into an historical center and
museum. We were greeted by 2 members of
the Gjesdal History group, Gunleif, and two of Rolf's children who had
bicycled there to help serve Norwegian waffles and jam. Gunleif had been unable to locate us at the Madland
farm, so had traveled on to the Limagarden center to wait for us. Limagarden, by the way, means "the Lima
farm."
This
was not a particularly small museum. It
was quite a large farm house with several rooms, all of which were quite full
of antiques and displays depicting life in another time. In the living room the table was set to
serve the refreshments, and after a brief tour of the house, we all sat down
and enjoyed the pleasant company and surroundings.
< Inside the main Lima farm house with history
group - Rolf cut off on the left, then Gunleif, two members of the history
group, Rolf's son and daughter, Peg with back to camera.
After
the table was cleared, the three genealogists, Keith, Rolf, and Gunleif, fell
to discussions and data comparisons.
Not surprisingly, a brief glance at Keith's ancestor chart revealed
common ancestors -- yes, these two were cousins to Keith as well. Interestingly, Rolf pointed out that the
nice lady at the Gjesdal church was a cousin too. Keith was particularly interested in getting information about
the oldest Madland daughter, Marta, who had stayed behind and never
emigrated. Both Rolf and Gunleif gave
Keith printouts with more information about his ancestors from this area. They were very interested to learn more
about the Madland descendants that emigrated, those that eventually settled in
California and their descendants.
This
conversation in English had to be boring for the two center volunteers, but
Keith was in his element. Peg became
restless and was curious enough about the other buildings to go out and walk
around. The volunteers soon joined her
and a very thorough tour of ALL the buildings followed. The two kids had long since bicycled
home.
The
rest of the center was impressive.
There was a model of the farm with archaeologist interpretations of how
the land looked prehistorically. This
included a small stone age farm. The
larger barn housed a vast display of every farm implement imaginable and
multiple examples of some. In another building,
there was an old 4 harness loom which was obviously used for demonstrations as
it was completely warped and several inches of prior weaver's experiments were
there. The volunteers must have read
Peg's mind and invited her to sit and throw a few shuttles. This was exciting for Peg as she has had a
longtime interest in textiles from the days she raised sheep and grew dye
plants for the wool.
Eventually
there was only one building left unexplored, and the guys were still
talking. The last building was the
store room of uncatalogued donations.
Browsing among the shelves and cardboard boxes, Peg couldn't help but
think of her mother and sisters who love this kind of thing. The dishes alone would have brought groans
of excitement to them. Evidently, these
items were awaiting their proper place in the history museum. This place is a popular destination for
school groups on history excursions as well as other community groups. There were excellent facilities for classes
and demonstrations of many kinds. The
dishes from our earlier refreshments had all be cleared away and washed in
dishwasher, and the large modern kitchen was clean and neat for the next
group. This kitchen appeared to have
been either recently remodeled or added on to in order facilitate the large
groups that must come here.
[For more information on Limagarden
Bygdatun: http://home.netpower.no/nyboe/algard/guide/limagarden.html ]
Before leaving this group, Keith was presented with a
copy of a book ("bygdebok") on farm and family history for Gjesdal
kommune. This was a very special
book. Even though it was written in
Norwegian, Keith had become very excited as he was glancing through it and saw
many of his ancestor's names. Keith
promised to send them all more information on the descendants of his Madland
ancestors. Good-byes were said to Rolf
and the history group as Gunleif agreed to takes us back to the ferry by way of
the Seldal farm and the town of Høle.
It had
become late in the evening (around 9 o'clock) and the shadows and sunlight on
the various land forms were making the already beautiful country even more
so. We went by quite a few lakes,
arriving at the Seldal
farm in the
next kommune to the north. Cousin Ernst
Torkelson had brought us through this area on our whirl wind tour on the
morning of the 4th of July.
On that trip, we had stopped at a crossroads that we now discovered was
in the upper grazing regions of the large, original Seldal farm. It was on this view of a rocky, rugged
terrain, that Keith based his very qualified statement about understanding why
ancestors had emigrated, part of which was regretfully quoted in the Stavanger
Aftenblad. Keith's statement to the
reporter came out something like this, "A beautiful, but barren landscape.
I can understand that they emigrated to find "fatter" (richer)
grazing land, says Wheeler." Keith
continues to worry that he came across sounding like the "ugly
American."
<Seldal
farm, Sandnes kommune - Seldal Lake barely showing on right.
Gunleif
took us down to where he was quite sure the original Seldal farm was located
during the 1600's and 1700's when Keith's ancestors lived there. This area was in stark contrast to the upper
grazing land. Similar to the Madland
farm, the setting was beside a creek that flowed into a lake surrounded by what
appeared to be flat, fertile farmland.
As it was getting late, we only had time to take a few photographs and
then get back on the road.
We then drove northward
through the old Høle farm to the picturesque community of Høle. Trying to get a picture to document this
community where Keith had ancestors was a bit problematic because the sun was
low in the sky making for only one good angle for the camera. Gunleif showed us the old Høle church and
cemetery where, if we had had more time, Keith could have spent hours searching
for familiar names.
Keith & Gunleif at ancient stone marker in Høle Church
yard. >
From
Høle it is only a short drive to Lauvvik and the ferry. The ferry ride back across the fjord was
interesting in that there was a rare phenomena -- a sunset. Even though it was quite cold, we stayed up
on deck to watch it. Returning to Jørpeland after 10 PM (but still not
dark), Kristian let it be known that this was a good time for crabbing -- the
moon was full. Just time to catch our
breath before the next adventure.