Comments on: 136 - New Iceland - A Forgotten Nordic Colony In Canada

By: Russ Piekarski

Russ Piekarski — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:12:46 +0000

“…the first neo-Scandinavian state on American soil since Leif Eriksson’s brief transatlantic adventure”

Sorry, have to take issue with that. What about New Sweden?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden

By: mark

mark — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:22:43 +0000

Gimli is to this day the largest Icelandic settlement outside of Iceland.

“The Icelanders set up a school to learn English almost right away…”

Wow! How different they were from the immigrants today ;-)

By: Marc

Marc — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:52:52 +0000

I believe Manitoba still has the largest concentration of people of Icelandic decent outside of Iceland. Either Ontario, Alberta or North Dakota is probably 2nd.

By: Terri Filipski

Terri Filipski — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:41:51 +0000

So I’d like to know which province, currently, do a majority of Icelanders call home?

By: Helen Hinchliff

Helen Hinchliff — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:53:13 +0000

The map is wonderful. I would like to have a copy for personal family history use. Is it possible to e-mail me a copy? Thanks.

By: Sea Shanty Irish

Sea Shanty Irish — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 01:27:00 +0000

RE: the status of “New Iceland” you can see on the map a line separating “Manitoba” to the south from “District of Keewatin” to the North. NOTE that New Iceland is indicated as PART of the Keewatin.

In 1875 when the first Icelanders arrived on the shores of Lake Winnipeg (from Ontario) the area was part of the Northwest Territories. This area was acquired by Canada in 1870 when the young confederation purchased it (at the urging of the British government) from the Hudson’s Bay Company. At that time the Canadian government established the Northwest Territories.

In 1876 the District of Keewatin was created as a subdivision of the NWT; New Iceland was part of the new district. Five years later in 1881, the boundaries of the Province of Manitoba (established and admitted to the confederation in 1870) were expanded northward to include the New Iceland area.

The District of Keewatin continued to exist as part of the (greatly reduced) NTW until 1999, when the new Territory of Nunavut was created and the DK was abolished.

So the notion that New Iceland was ever an independent or even semi-independent entity is a complete myth. As is the idea that “Canada was willing to look the other way” though it may well be that the Icelandic settlement of 1875 helped speed the creation of the DK in 1876.

Of course, all this takes NOTHING away from the intrepid, independent Icelanders who settled the area. My hat is off to them and their justifiably proud descendents!

REALLY, took me about FIVE MINUTES of googling to establish these basic facts. Too bad the poster didn’t do some basic reseach BEFORE propagating a lot of half-truths and non-truths on the web.

BUT the map itself is GREAT!

By: Ster;ing

Ster;ing — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:19:32 +0000

My great grandfather was the first mailman in New Iceland. He had immigrated from Hrisey, in northern Iceland.

By: James Erwin

James Erwin — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:10:43 +0000

Tryggvi, you’ll love this then- http://www.icelandicfestival.com/

By: Tryggvi Theodorsson

Tryggvi Theodorsson — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:33:18 +0000

Fascinating info though. I believe there was a politician in Iceland that wanted to move the entire populace to New Iceland. How many Icelanders live in this are today? I would love to go visit if they have some sort of festival every year.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:51:00 +0000

The Kensington Runestone is actually dated 1362, not 1030. Regardless, it is true that it’s generally considered to be a forgery.