There’s a lot to explore in southwest Wisconsin. Last week I got in the car and drove over to Coon Valley and Norskedalen Nature and Heritage Center. If you’ve never been, Norskedalen is certainly worth the drive. Norskedalen consists of about 400 beautiful acres of valley and forest. And they have (tastefully) reconstructed several 19th century Norwegian-built log houses.
Coon Valley and much of Vernon County were largely Norwegian settled. And with marginal land of forested valley floors and open ridge tops, much of that early settlement history has been preserved. Below are some highlights from the trip. I located five log houses and expect there to be a ton more to discover.
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- Reconstructed svalgang stue at Norskedalen
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- Svalgang stue, south elevation. The “gallery” or enclosed porch comprises the right 1/3 of the house.
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- Svalgang stue, north elevation
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- Single room log house, left most part
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- Damn, someone found it before me!
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- Three room Akershus plan log house, south elevation
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- South and west elevations
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- West and south elevations
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- Mabel loves road trips
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- Corn crib! I’ve found (and blogged about?) two other log corn cribs.
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- Tobacco barn. Believe it or not, southwest Wisconsin was once a primary producer of the stuff.
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- Log barn. Notice how hay mow (second floor) is not mortared to allow for air movement while first floor animal shelter is.
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- Norskedalen
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- Ahh, what a sweet house! Two room house consisting of log stue and heavy timbered forstue.
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- Traditional three room Akershus plan log house left, framed addition right.
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- Coon Valley Co-op Creamery Co.
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