To get a taste of Denmark close to home,
just head to Western Iowa - and look for an old-fashioned
wooden windmill.
Dan : You can't get more Danish in Iowa than Elk Horn and
Kimballton where there's a mermaid
a menu item called "Frikadeller".
memorabilia from entertainment legend Victor Borge ... and a
windmill that stands 60 feet proud.
Welkommen.
I'm here with Lisa Steen Riggs, general manager of the
Danish Windmill in Elk Horn.
Lisa, tell me about the history of this wonderful attraction.
It is a great attraction.
Its an authentic Danish Windmill built in 1848 and came from
Norre Snede, Denmark.
Kind of one man's crazy idea, we otta have a windmill from Denmark.
Dan : Tell me how did they disassemble something and put it
back together here in Iowa?
Lisa : It wasn't easy.
Thank goodness for the carpenter in Denmark.
As he tore it down, he marked each piece and made this model
in scale of 1 to 10 and put some markings on the model so that
was our blueprint.
It took people one year, 300 volunteers and a total of
$100,000 to rebuild it and built it to working condition.
Dan : After 165 years, this windmill can still grind grain
provided the wind is blowing.
Some of the grain, ground into flour is sold in the adjacent gift shop.
I wanted to learn more about the Danish culture and how so many
immigrants ended up in this part of Iowa.
So no better place to go than the Danish Immigrant Museum.
Tradition has it that some of them got to Western Iowa,
to the boundary of what was then Indian Territory,
in the late 1840s - 50's.
Then in the 1870s, that's when the large migration begins here.
Dan : John Mark says, with the development of steam ships,
the travel time for Danes coming to the U.S.
was cut to ten days to two weeks.
You could take what you could pay for.
So that was part of the issue, too.
Most often took a chest, maybe several.
And we have a number of them in the museum.
And in those chests would of course be packed probably mostly
textiles, sheets, clothing.
That sort of thing.
Dan: Since it was founded in 1983, the museum has accumulated
some 35-thousand artifacts - from Danish porcelain ....
to pins from various fraternal organizations.
In 1976, the Queen of Denmark gifted what's called a "China"
chair by renowned Danish designer Hans Wegner And one of
the more unusual items: cast molds from the short-lived,
vintage Madsen automobile- built by a blacksmith
in Council Bluffs.
♪
On a musical note: We're told this piano was the first one
ordered by 20th century Danish-American pianist and
humorist Victor Borge.
John Mark Nielsen : However, when we received it,
it couldn't be played.
First of all, they found water still in the sound board from Hurricane Hugo.
Then to celebrate the centennial of his birth in 2009,
we had it restored.
Dan : You know, this community has done a great job
of preserving history ... but some here are also exposing us
to modern Danish trends.
In several locations around Elk Horn,
there are electric car recharging stations.
You can go to Copenhagen, island of Samso,
Island of Aero and you can find electrical vehicles there.
The windmill was brought back from Denmark.
What we're doing is trying to bring technologies from Denmark
relating to a variety of renewable energies,
electric cars are one of these.
We're a little ahead of the curve, but as field of dreams,
if you build it they will come so in the future we'll be having
more vehicles coming.
Dan : Let's see - I've seen Danish technology...
and history.
How about some Danish food?
On the highway into Elk Horn is the Danish Inn,
known for its smorgasbord.
Everything looks great but I think I'll focus on the
Danish specialties in particular.
I know red cabbage when I see it.
If you're not hungry enough for a buffet,
we also have a number of small braught,
Danish open-face sandwiches.
We have Beef with romalad.
We also have Frikadeller, roast pork has
red cabbage over the top of it.
We also have beef with horseradish.
This is Danish cheese havarti with red peppers and
radish over the top as well.
Lastly, but certainly not least, is Danish dessert.
And this being our most popular one, Danish Kringle.
It's a very light, fluffy puff pastry dough with a very rich
almond cream through the center.
Dan: Yummm.
From food....
to technology...
to history...
I've learned a lot about the Danes today.
But I want to make just one more stop.
A few miles north of Elk Horn - in the town of Kimballton - is a
bronze, full-size replica of the Little Mermaid... just like the
one that reposes in Copenhagen harbor,
one of Denmark's most popular tourist attractions.
And to think, I didn't have to board a plane and travel some
43-hundred miles to experience my taste of Denmark!