Danes in Kenmare, North Dakota

Authors

Bertel Schou

Keywords

Kenmare, North Dakota, Danish American immigrants, Danish windmills, Danish settlements

Abstract

The town of Kenmare, in Denmark Township in the northern part of Ward County, North Dakota, is famous for its Danish windmill, one of only three in the United States (the other two are in Elk Horn, Iowa and Solvang, California). The mill, with its gears of hand-hewn maple, was built eleven miles north of Kenmare by a Danish immigrant named Christian C. Jensen in 1902 and was in daily operation until 1918. It was transported into the center of Kenmare in 1958, restored in 1961, and moved to its current location on downtown Park Square in 1965. It doesn’t qualify for the National Register of Historic Places, because it was moved, but it has served as a symbol of the area’s Danish heritage for more than a century.

Recommended Citation

Schou, Bertel (2021) "Danes in Kenmare, North Dakota," The Bridge: Vol. 44: No. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge/vol44/iss1/9