On my first visit to Dalsland, some years ago, my first thoughts were to find the places where my ancestors had lived. I had already researched the Swedish Church records so I knew the parishes I wanted to visit. I even had the farm names for some ancestors. Finding the farms required detailed maps. Fortunately the Dalsland Museum in Mellerud sells excellent parish maps from the late 19th Century that show the farm names.
With the maps on the car seat along side of me, I drove to the parishes of Mö, Rännelanda, Högäsater and Färgelanda. I found the ruins of buildings where my ancestors lived before they emigrated to Minnesota. In Mö my ancestors had worked at the Foresbaka ironworks. I drove south from the Mö Church hoping to find some ruins of the old buildings. To my surprise I found the old ironworks was now the clubhouse and buildings for the Foresbaka Championship Golf Course. The Dalsland visitors can have some very surprising experiences when exploring the land of their ancestors.
But visiting Dalsland should be more than just trying to find one’s family history. To start with the churches are very beautiful and often open for visitors. The church most often listed in travel books is the one at Skållerud. It is old and very ornate, definitely a must see. Also the paintings on the pews of the Mö church are very attractive. I found it different that the bell towers for many of the old churches are separate buildings. Some of the bell towers which I have found very interesting are the towers for the churches at Ör and Jarn.
Lake Vänern forms the eastern boundary of Dalsland. It is the largest inland lake in Europe. There are many places to view the lake, but my favorite is on the point where you find the remains of the Dalaborg Medieval Castle. It was built in 1304 by King Birger’s two brothers Erik and Waldemar. When you visit the Castle ruins and look at the beautiful view of the lake you understand why they selected this location. The castle burnt down during civil unrest in 1434 and was never rebuilt. You will find the ruins on the lake shore just east of Grinstad.
My ancestors left Rännelanda in 1881. When they emigrated many families lived in the parish. Most of the farming was done with horses and needed many people using hand tools to plant, cultivate and harvest the crops. Now one tractor can do the work of many people. The women milked the cows, made butter and cheese. Now farmers have milking machines and trucks come to pick up the milk and take it to a dairy for processing. Men went into the forests with hand saws and axes to cut trees that would be used for lumber or to make charcoal. Now the lumberman uses a gasoline powered saw that can cut down a tree in a few minutes. I think to myself, would there have been any way for my ancestors to make a living if they had stayed in Rännelanda?
In the mid Eighteenth Century families from Dalsland emigrated to many different parts of the United States and Canada. They wrote back about the places where they had settled. But after driving around Dalsland I can see why the letters sent by the immigrants who had settled in Minnesota along the upper St. Croix River Valley attracted so many of the people of Dalsland. This area is so similar to where I grew up.
The people of Dalsland that moved to the upper St. Croix River Valley did not need to learn how to live in a new country. The climate was almost identical. They found many of the trees, plants and wild animals were just like they had seen all their lives. But best of all there was plenty of work for the men during the winter in the forests along the St. Croix River Valley and there was plenty of available land to buy for a farm. Probably the biggest difference was that there were not so many big rocks in Minnesota so it was much easier to clear the land for their farms.
It also was easy because there were so many people from Sweden already living there. The ancestors of the families where I grew up had emigrated from Ör, Erikstad, Grinstad, Rännelanda, Bolstad, Dalskog, Sundals-Ryr and other parishes in Dalsland. Most adults could speak some Swedish.
Now the beauty of Dalsland is that it has not changed that much from what it was like when my ancestors left in 1881. At that time Minnesota looked like Dalsland. Now Dalsland looks like Minnesota did when my ancestors arrived there. Dalsland has the unspoiled look of forests and family farms. No large developments with hundreds of houses. No large industrial areas polluting the air. Just somewhere to remind one that not all places have become 21st Century crowded cities.

Paul Wahlquist