| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
EXPOSED RAFTER ENDS. SQUARE CUT LOG CONSTRUCTION W/FULL DOVETAILED CNR NOTCHING. MORTAR CHINKING. DOOR ON FRONT AND SIDE. SMALL BOARDED WINDOW IN LOFT.
Vernon County, a scenic land of undulating ridges and steep-sided dales, attracted thousands of Norwegian settlers in the mid-nineteenth century. Some came directly from Norway, fleeing overpopulation and religious unrest. Others came from older Norwegian enclaves in Rock, Dane, and Waukesha counties, following the wheat-farming frontier into western Wisconsin. They typically settled in tight clusters, often with others who hailed from the very same valley or town in Norway. They arrived in the Westby area in 1848 and in the Coon Creek valley the next year. By 1860, almost half of America’s Norwegian immigrants lived in Wisconsin, and Vernon County boasted one of the heaviest concentrations of all.
Like many Coon Valley Norwegians, Nils Skumsrud came from Biri, in southeastern Norway. He immigrated to the United States in 1849, settling in Dane County, but moved here and built this house in 1853. In typical Norwegian fashion, he joined the hewn-log walls with full dovetail corner notches, the most difficult kind to make, demonstrating his facility for working wood. He chinked the walls with wood strips and mortar, then applied a protective calcimine wash inside and out. He placed eight horizontal purlins (you can see them under the eaves at the gable ends) to support the rafters, and he ran a tamarack ridgepole along the roof’s apex. The tiny door in one gable end leads to an attic loft. Inside the house, the one pine-floored room served as both living and sleeping space. Removable pegs inserted in the wall in the northeast corner functioned as steps, providing access to more sleeping space (the Skumsruds had five children) in the loft. At an unknown date, someone added a course of logs, slightly raising the loft and roof. The cabin was also electrified.
The oldest known dwelling to survive in Vernon County, this house remains in its original location. The rest of the Skumsrud Heritage Farm consists of buildings that have been moved onto the museum grounds and are not associated historically with the Skumsrud House. |
|---|
