"With Westby being 100% Norwegian decent at one time and it still
(has) many Norwegian around the area it has decided that something
should be done to celebrate our heritage of the past. There were some
young energetic new merchants in town who formed a promoters club. On
the eve of April 22, 1969 they called a meeting of all the interested
citizens of our fair city to see what could be done to add some interest
here. There seemed to be a large group of citizens who were interested
and that is when the May 17th celebration was born. With much
work to be done there was a question of who had the time and energy to
do some planning for the event so a man by the name of P.N. Rude was
nominated and elected. He accepted the responsibility and right away
the committee was formed.
The corporation was known as the Syttende Mai Corp. The first Syttende Mai celebration was held on May 17th 1969.
The citizens of our city became aware of the fact that Norwegian
dress should be the order of the day and everyone started to make or buy
outfits which would be attuned to the climate of the celebration. With
our very appropriate signs at the city limits one can very easily find
where the celebration would be."
Timeline
1969, May: First Festival
1969, November: Articles of Incorporation signed by Robert C.
Zimmerman, Secretary of State; Promoters included P.N. Rude, D.L.
Vosseteig, Mrs. Elmo Gulsvig, and J.R. Weber
1970: First Princess Royalty- Lory Knutson, Terrie Tainter, Lynn Jaeger selected out of 35 girls
1971–1975: Beginning of Flea Market, Saturday Night Dance where a
street was closed for the evening, parade float included bails of hay
and then a small Stabbur, barrel water fight between local firefighters,
tractor pulls, rosemaling demonstrations, event goers wore skirts and
vest
1976–1980: Float added staggered seats for royalty, troll hunt,
carnival, kiddie parade, arts and craft show, quilt contest, cycle
derby, fiddlers’ contest, camel rides, kickoff dance changed to
breakfast kickoff
1981–1985: Float changed to a blue circle, event goers started wearing bunads, Borgens Café window baking demonstration
1986–2000: Cow pie bingo, kiddie tractor pulls, trolls as float escorts
2001–2006: Go-kart races, bike tour, 5k walk/run, changed trolls to be homemade
Artisan and Nisse History
Evelyn Larson began painting on mirrors and selling them in 1951.There is one in a show case at the Snowflake building in Timber Coulee. It is now 55 years old. Mirror painting turned into sign lettering in 1954, along with lettering trucks and store windows. There were three barns with a design and lettering, one remains south of town. The Old Town Ranch with a horse design, done 48 years ago, 1958. From 1956 to 1960 there were 58 trucks and 423 signs lettered.
Nisse's Story:
The American/Norwegian Nisse is the happy go lucky type and not a gloomy gus. Two of these happy guys graced each sign and still do on the new signs today 38 years later, repainted but never replaced. The Nisse was cutout of three quarter inch marine plywood. Many business places had one or two designed for their store. Jim Weber jewelry store had one holding up a rather large diamond, David Vossetieg Furniture had the largest display with two Nisse, a house, tree, two Nisse carrying a sofa and a little dog running along.
The public library had the first girl Nisse, she was scolding the boy Nisse for dropping his books. Then, Farmers Union, had the largest ones ever made. One eight foot Nisse carrying a feed sack and a seven foot one with an oil can. Eric Leum’s store had a flute player. The Westby Beauty shop had a boy and girl Nisse. There were four painted on the wall down stairs at the American Legion. A large mural painted in what was then Flugstad’s Hardware, now Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, it is still there along with more paintings of Nisse on the gift shop cupboard doors, done later.
Since most of this was done in 1969 to the mid seventies the others have all gone by the wayside by this time. A copyright on the Nisse was applied for and granted in 1969. There are now seven federal copyrights on Ole the Nisse. With people wanting to send him to their friends and relatives in many states and even overseas a copy right is necessary.
Nisse get lonely too, so Ole found himself a wife. They have a boy and a girl and a troll they adopted, plus a dog and a cat. The Trollsons's can be seen on the front page of The Westby Times every week. Being very civic minded they participate and remind everyone of things going on in the community. Evelyn also likes to paint on canvas, doing wildlife and other scenes. She also does Rosmaling on wooden plates and design work besides doing the bulletin cover for her church for the past 12 years.
We would like to thank Evelyn for her beautiful artistry and for allowing the Nisse to be a part of our annual festival.
