1. Oleanna
Midnattsolen Syttende Mai Celebration
05/19/2012
“The Constitution of Norway was signed at Eidsvoll on May 17 in the year 1814.
The constitution declared Norway to be an independent nation.
The celebration of this day began spontaneously among students and others from
early on. However, Norway was at that time under Swedish rule (following the
Convention of Moss in August 1814) and for some years the King of Sweden and
Norway was reluctant to allow the celebrations.
The day focused originally on the Norwegian constitution, but after 1905, the focus
has been directed also towards the royal family. The parliament of Norway broke the
personal union with Sweden under the House of Bernadotte on 7 June 1905. After
some months of tension and fear of war between the two neighbouring nations,
negotiations between the two governments led to Norway's recognition by Sweden as
an independent constitutional monarchy on 26 October 1905. On that date, King
Oscar II renounced his claim to the Norwegian throne, effectively dissolving the United
Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. This event was quickly followed by Prince Carl of
Denmark's accession to the Norwegian throne on 18 November the same year, taking
the name Haakon VII.”

2. "I'm Off to Oleana," 1853, Ditmar Meidell
I'm off to Oleana, I'm turning from my doorway,
No chains for me, I'll say good-bye to slavery in Norway.
Ole-Ole-Ole-oh! Oleana!
Ole-Ole-Ole-oh! Oleana!
They give you land for nothing in jolly Oleana,
And grain comes leaping from the ground in floods of golden manna.
The grain it does the threshing, it pours into the sack, Sir,
You make a quart of whiskey from each one without expense, Sir
The crops they are gigantic, potatoes are immense, Sir,
You make a quart of whiskey from each one without expense, Sir.
And ale as strong and sweet as the best you've ever tasted,
It's running in the foamy creek, where most of it is wasted
The salmon they are playing, and leaping in the brook, Sir,
They hop into your kettle, put the cover on, and cook, Sir.
And little roasted piggies, with manners quite demure, Sir,
They ask you, Will you have some ham? And then you say, Why, sure, Sir!
The cows are most obliging, their milk they put in pails, Sir,
They make your cheese and butter with a skill that never fails, Sir.
The bull he is the master, his calves he likes to boss, Sir,
He beats them when they loaf about, he's never at a loss, Sir.
The calves are very helpful, themselves they skin and kill, Sir,
They turn into a tasty roast before you drink your fill, Sir.
The hens lay eggs colossal, so big and round and fine, Sir,
The roosters act like eight-day clocks, they always tell the time, Sir.
And cakes come raining down, Sir. with chocolate frosting coated,
They're nice and rich and sweet, good Lord, you eat them till you're bloated
And all night long the sun shines, it always keeps a-glowing,
It gives you eyes just like a cat's, to see where you are going
The moon is also beaming, it's always full, I vow, Sir,
A bottle for a telescope, I'm looking at it now, Sir.

3. Name:
Ole Bull's Colony
Region:
Allegheny National Forest Region
County:
Potter
Marker Location:
Cherry Spgs. Rd. (PA 44) near W. Branch Rd.
(Cherry Springs State Park)
Dedication Date:
August 19, 1947

4. Violinist Ole Bull, circa 1870.
Credit: Image donated by Corbis-Bettmann
Acclaimed as one of the greatest violin virtuosos of his age, Norwegian Ole Bull (1810-1880) in
1852 bought more than 17 square miles of land in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania's Potter
County to establish a Norwegian settlement in America. The colony soon floundered and Bull
returned to Norway in 1857. In 1920, Pennsylvania established the 117-acre Ole Bull State Park,
which contains the site of the Norwegian settlements.

5. Enraptured by the beauty of Potter County's rugged woodlands, violin
virtuoso and erstwhile colonizer Ole Bull looked over the expanse of
forested lands and proclaimed, "We are to found a New Norway,
consecrated to liberty, baptized with independence, and protected by
the Union's mighty flag." In 1852, several hundred immigrants answered
his call and left Norway and the American Midwest for a new home in the
wilds of in north-central Pennsylvania. Less than two years later, Ole
Bull's grand venture would collapse in scandal and derision.
Born in Bergen, Norway, Ole Bull (1810-1880) was a violin soloist with the
local philharmonic orchestra at the age of eight. By the 1830s, Bull had a
thriving concert career. Bull offered a theatrical style that delighted
audiences in Europe, and after an extensive tour in 1845, in the United
States, as well. With fame came wealth and influence, and a kind of hero
status in his native land. Bull befriended other musical celebrities,
including Edvard Grieg, Franz Liszt, and famed German composer
Robert Schumann, who called Bull "the greatest of all."
Bull was also a tireless promoter of Norwegian culture.
After a year of severe
hardships, the majority of
Norwegians who settled in
Ole Bull's Potter County
colony disbanded and moved
away, many of them west to
join other Norwegian
immigrants in Michigan and
Wisconsin.
Credit: Courtesy of Potter County Historical Society. The last cabin standing from
the Oleana Colony, Potter County, PA, circa 1900.

6. Inspired by the French Revolution of 1848, Bull established Norwegian
Theater in Bergen to instill national pride in his fellow countrymen. The
venture soon collapsed, however, and disillusioned by the Norwegian
Parliament refusal to provide funding, Bull formulated plans to leave
Norway and found a colony for Norwegians in the New World.
On his second American tour, in 1852, Bull investigated the purchase of
land in the Midwest and in Virginia. Unable to reconcile the institution of
slavery with his perception of American freedom, Bull entered into an
agreement to purchase 11,144 acres of land for a series of settlement in
the Kettle Creek Valley in Potter County, Pennsylvania, whose
mountainous terrain reminded him of his native Norway.
One of the first structures built by
Norwegian settlers at Oleana, this
three-story hotel and adjacent dining
hall served as the community's
center of activities. In 1856, long
after the majority of settlers left the
colony, John Henry Andresen
purchased the hotel. Andresen ran
the hotel until 1880 when his
adopted son Willard took over.
Andresen later opened a grist mill
and two saw mills, and ran the post
office.
Credit: Courtesy of Potter County Historical Society

7. On September 5, 1852, Bull arrived by coach in Coudersport, followed two days later by what a
local paper called a first contingent of thirty "fine looking, robust and determined appearing sons of
Norway." Within several weeks, an additional 105 colonists had arrived. Over the next year,
several hundred more from Wisconsin as well as Norway joined the first contingent. Estimates
place the total number of settlers between 300 and 800.
During the first few months of settlement, laborers constructed a hotel, schoolhouses, and cabins
for the new arrivals. Bull employed Robert Hamilton, a surveyor, to design plans for four towns in
the Kettle Creek Valley named Oleana, New Bergen, Valhalla, and New Norway. By the first
snowfall of November 1852, however, the settlement already faced serious problems. Deep snows
blocked the road between Oleana and the nearest town, Coudersport, located roughly thirty miles
away, supplies dwindled, and the settlers started to run out of money.
To pay for the land and the colonists' expenses, Bull absented himself for months, traveling on an
extended concert tour. Unpaid bills, mounting invoices, and a lack of leadership soon eroded the
settlers' morale and fueled rumors in the United States and in Norway that the colony was
doomed. Soon The New York Times claimed that Bull did not possess clear title to lands he sold
to settlers, further undermining the venture. Opponents back in Norway were especially critical of
Bull's venture. Published in Norway on March 5, 1853, the ballad "Oleana," mocked both Bull and
the settlers who followed him.
Despite the mass exodus
from the New Norway colony
after its collapse in the mid-
1850s, a few settlers stayed
behind, including the Olson
family, pictured here. The son
of original settlers, Henry
Olson operated the Olson
Lodge in Oleana for twenty-
five years.
Credit: Courtesy of Potter County Historical Society
To his critics' delight, Bull had never acquired title to the land upon which his Norwegian
settlements were built, and the railroad that was supposed to link the Oleanna settlements to the
outside world never materialized. On September 22, 1853, Bull deeded the land back to John F.
Cowan for a refund for $103,888, the amount he paid for the land. By October, with winter
approaching, many settlers abandoned Oleana to relocate to the Midwest, where sizable
Norwegian farming communities were emerging outside Milwaukee and Minneapolis, or return to
Norway.

8. Many accounts of New Norway refer to
Ole Bull's residence overlooking the town
as a castle. In fact, Bull's residence was
no more than a temporary wooden cabin
built atop a large stone wall and
foundation. Bull planned to build onto his
home in the future, but like most of the
other buildings in the colony, his
residence fell into disrepair and was then
torn down. Today, remnants of the stone
foundation are all that remain of Ole Bull's
"castle."
Credit: Courtesy of Potter County Historical Society
Despite his poor health, Bull continued to tour and hold benefit concerts for the settlers of Oleana,
sending money to them throughout the fall. One source later estimated that he lost between
$40,000 and $70,000 in the venture. By the spring of 1854, few immigrants remained in Bull's
failed colony. Soon, new settlers from Germany moved into the area. A few Norwegians, however,
did remain in Potter County, including John Henry Andresen, who purchased the hotel in Oleana
and lived in Oleana until his death in 1890. The Olson family operated the Olson Lodge well into
the 1900s.
After the collapse of Oleana, Bull remained in the United States until 1859, when he returned to
his family in Norway. In 1867, he sailed again for America and another lucrative transcontinental
tour. Remarkably, his popularity was as strong as ever. In the years following his death in 1880,
Norwegian communities throughout America continued to revere Ole Bull. Thousands attended the
dedication ceremonies in Minneapolis when in 1896 a statue was dedicated in his honor.
Following World War I, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania purchased 132 acres along Kettle
Creek and in 1925 opened Ole Bull State Park to the public. In 2002, on the 150th anniversary of
the colony's founding, a monument to Ole Bull was erected in the park, a gift of the citizens of
Norway to honor the patron's vision and virtuosity in attempting to transplant Norway to America.
Beyond the Marker
Theodore Christian Blegen, Norwegian Migration to America, 1825-1860
(Ayer Co. Pub.), 1969.
Einar Haugen, Ole Bull: Norway's Romantic Musician And Cosmopolitan Patriot
(University of Wisconsin Press), 1993.
Paul W Heimel, Oleana: The Ole Bull Colony (Knox Books), 2002.
Minnesota State University, Norwegian Immigration
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/mnstatehistory/norwegian_migration...
Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources , Ole Bull State Park
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/olebull.aspx
http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-3D5