Neste Pioneer Log House Dedicated at Valdres Folk Museum

Slide show created by photographer Kjell Arne Berntsen            Click Here to View Individual Slides

Dedication Ceremony July 4, 2005

   Approximately 85 people were present for the dedication of the Neste Pioneer Log House at the Valdres Folk Museum on July 4th, 2005.  Among the guests were the Neste family who donated the house, as well as participants in the Vesterheim Museum Folk Art Study Tour and people from the Fagernes area. 

   Jahn Børe Jahnsen delivered the opening speech and read a letter of greeting sent by Valdres Samband President Doris Hayes on behalf of all members of the Valdres Samband.    Short speeches were made by Ingrid Neste, owner of the Neste Farm outside Decorah, Iowa; Tova Brandt, curator of the Vesterheim Museum; Eivind Brenna, mayor of West Slidre and Torill Thømt, director of the Valdres Folk Museum.  The national anthems of Norway and America were sung. 

   A flag which flew over the State Capitol building in Des Moines, Iowa on Syttende Mai 2004 now flies by the Neste Pioneer House at its new home at the Fagernes Folk Museum.

"The American House"

This pioneer log house was built 1854 by Knud Knudsen Neste from West Slidre, Valdres, outside Decorah Iowa.  It was moved in 1869 when a railway was built over the farm. The family lived in the house until 1876, and from then on it was used for hands and helpers. Later the house was a grainery and corn crib for storing grain and corn, and even later a chicken house.  The house has paneling over three walls and over the window openings. except a small window by the door.  The fourth wall was covered by another building which was later removed. From the 1940's the house was used as a farm workshop and a garage for the farm's first Ford tractor.  Then the house had double doors. The farm is still owned by the Neste family. They donated the house to the Valdres Folkemuseum in 2004, and it was dismantled and shipped to Valdres in cooperation with the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum and the Norwegian Emigrant Museum in Hamar.  The house was rebuilt at the Valdres Folkemuseum in 2005.

Text of Donation Letter dated April 2, 2004 from Luverne Neste, Ingrid Neste, and JoAnn Neste Calovich

Greetings from Decorah Iowa!
On behalf of the Neste family of past and future generations, we, the present owners of the Neste family farm would be  honored to donate the Neste log house from 1854 to the "Glory of God" and to the Valdres Folkemuseum in Fagernes, Norway.

May it be a symbol of the simple, steadfast life they lived and the God they worshipped.