Scandinavian Heritage Festival connects many Utahns to Sanpete County
by Arianne Brown ksl · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- The Scandinavian Heritage Festival in Ephraim celebrates Sanpete County's Nordic roots.
- Amanda Hansen discovered her husband's ancestors settled the area upon moving there.
- The festival, attracting 30,000 visitors, is Friday and Saturday and features historical tours and cultural activities.
EPHRAIM — When Amanda Hansen moved her family to Ephraim with the goal of planting some family roots, she didn't know that those roots were already planted.
"We moved to Ephraim out of the blue," Hansen said. "We didn't move here for a job or for any specific reason other than we felt called to move here. When we got here, we found out that my husband's ancestors settled Sanpete County."
Many of the area's pioneer settlers immigrated in the late 1800s from Scandinavia, earning the area the nickname "Little Denmark." Not only has the community embraced that title, but over the past 50 years, its annual Scandinavian Heritage Festival has drawn countless people eager to learn about the history of the early settlers.
"Ephraim in particular has adopted it as a tag slogan for its city," said Hansen, who serves on the festival board. "It even says, 'Welcome to Little Denmark' because a lot of those Nordic people were the pioneers who came across and settled Sanpete County."
The Scandinavian Heritage Festival will be held this weekend near the Snow College campus and historic Pioneer Park in Ephraim. It has been known as one of the largest Scandinavian celebrations in the western United States. In fact, Hansen said last year's event brought in upwards of 30,000 visitors — many of whom have also found ancestral ties to the area.
"Many people feel drawn here and then find out that their ancestry and their history is there as well," she said. "There is a family search center where people can look up their ancestors and see if they're connected to any of those pioneers that settled Sanpete County. A lot of people who have come to visit the festival have found that they have roots here."
In addition to a family history search, the festival has a series of villages that visitors can see. Each village is dedicated to regions of Scandinavia, including the popular Viking village.
"At the Viking village, you can see all kinds of Knoll binding and wood carving and metallurgy," she said. "Then you move up the line to the Scandinavian crafter village; that's where you'll have the wood carving in the painters and weavers, and we have beekeepers, and there's a little food court where you can find Swedish meatballs."
The festival also has events that people can participate in, with one that has grown in popularity over the years — a wife-carrying contest.
"There are guided tours through the homes and there are storytellers who tell the story of Sanpete County," Hansen said. "Visitors get to travel with these people from their ancestry to where they landed here in Sanpete County.
"If you go to the pioneer cemetery in Ephraim, you'll find a lot of families and on their headstones, it will say where they came from," she continued. "Most of them are Denmark and Sweden. There's a lot of Finland in there, too — and Vikings. We lean into that Viking theme because it's very popular."
Hansen said it has been fun to watch people visit the festival and find themselves in part of its history, adding that, to her, it feels like her family came home.
"We felt like we came home," she said. "If you talk to many people who end up in Sanpete County for very long, you'll find out there are a lot of stories like that."
The Scandinavian Heritage Festival runs from Friday, May 22, to Saturday, May 23, at the Snow College campus. More information can be found at scandifest.org.
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Arianne Brown
Arianne Brown is a reporter covering southern Utah communities, with a focus on heart-warming stories and local happenings. She has been a reporter for 14 years.