OUR PROJECTS

EDUCATION & PRESERVATION CENTER

In 2025, we purchased Old Danish Workshop from Gene 'Beaner' Thomsen. The woodshop has sat next to the windmill since Thomsen built it in 1995 as a retirement project. For 30 years, our organization called upon Thomsen and his woodshop for maintenance and repairs of various kinds of work. The woodshop has been an indispensable resource, especially over the last few years after we've conducted major restoration work to the windmill and overhauled much of the gift shop. At the same time, Thomsen's shop became an institution within the community. Numerous residents and businesses depended on his services for restoring and fixing furniture. Additionally, Thomsen also made wooden crafts that he sold in the storefront including his popular oven squirrels, birdhouses, canes, and wooden toys. 

We have two objectives for this project. The first is to preserve the woodshop which has always been an important resource for maintaining both the windmill and our other facilities. The second is to create a classroom where pubic programs can be introduced on the education of Old-World skills that Danish immigrants brought with them. These include woodworking, wood carving, blacksmithing, leather work, cooking, horticulture, etc. Through donations, the center will be transformed into an essential resource for not only the preservation of the important skills that built our community over a century ago, but also as a means to educate a new generation of builders to maintain the legacies of their ancestors while they forge their own. 

After 30 years of constant use, the building will require some work before we can officially move in and install new equipment. This includes a new furnace, new flooring, new plumbing, expanded electrical capacity, a new roof, and a major exterior refresh to replace rotten siding. Once some of these needs are addressed, we can begin rebuilding the woodshop and transforming the retail space into a classroom lab room complete with new furniture, lecture equipment, and tools. 

Later on, we envision utilizing the west-side plot as well. One idea is to offer a space for a community garden which can double as an educational space through partnership with the Elk Horn Public Library. Another option is to grow a small field of wheat, rye, or other grains which can become part of its own farm-to-mill-to-table living history program.

900CE VIKINGHJEM & SMITHY

The replica Vikinghjem erected on the southern edge of our grounds has been a staple attraction of our organization since its construction in 2007. Although structured to adhere to modern building codes, the hjem's design is based on Viking-age architecture, complete with contemporary replica furniture, fixtures, textiles, and tools.  The dwelling is interpreted as the home of a wealthy blacksmith. It features a long-house style, open-concept living quarters including sleeping, cooking, and work areas. Attached to the west end is a working forge where re-enactors host demonstrations on how to make coins, nails, hinges, and other common goods that blacksmiths would have made. The hjem is presented as a self-sufficient dwelling and various parts of Viking culture and everyday life are presented in and around the hjem during our annual festivals. The hjem is kept open for daily viewing during the warmer months of the year, and visitors are also met with an interpretive path on the way down to it which details various tidbits of Viking history and culture. 

Today, the hjem itself is largely self-contained, but we still invest in various projects every year to keep it maintained such as fixing floor boards, adjusting the landscaping, or replacing the rim boards around the roof line which have a tendency to rot as a result of the combination of modern construction clashing with authentic appearance. 

In 2025, we took a major preemptive step by removing the large cottonwood tree which draped over the hjem from the South. A number of large dead branches were removed in the process, and the rot found inside the tree suggested it was only a matter of time before a substantial accident occurred. We will be watching the hjem closely in the coming months to monitor how the extra sunlight may affect the structure. This was a costly project which removed a historic piece of our landscape, but we are thankful to have secured the safety of both the hjem and our visitors and performers. 

MORNING STAR TINY CHAPEL

We took over stewardship for Morning Star Chapel from the Museum of Danish America in 2013. It was built by a Danish immigrant, Charles Johann Walensky in Waterloo, Iowa in 1951.  Walensky was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and apprenticed as a carpenter. He immigrated to Waterloo, Iowa in 1888 where he applied his trade and helped build many churches. By far the most unique of them is the tiny chapel he built in his own backyard. Walensky was a deeply religious man. When he was 83-years old, he began to build a miniature chapel in his own backyard as a place for people to meditate, pray and relax.

The tiny chapel is just six feet wide and eight feet long. The interior is complete in every detail with an altar and pulpit. It has four pews with each just large enough to hold one person. Scriptural text illustrated with oil paintings decorate the walls and the windows are stained glass. The Chapel is adorned with a copper cross on the steeple. Organ music was piped in and included a composition by Walensky, entitled, “Chapel by the Wayside”. A 48-star US flag sits furled above the pulpit.

Over the years, many have celebrated a special event such as a christening, wedding or anniversary at the tiny chapel. Like the vikinghjem, it remains open seasonally during the warmer months for visitors to peak inside and admire. The chapel is regularly cleaned and touched up, particularly the exterior paint. Fresh annuals are planted outside the door every year. 

EBELTOFT VILLAGE MINIATURE EXHIBIT

Our Ebeltoft Village exhibit consists of miniature buildings built by Richard Storkfelt, a Danish immigrant who lived in Sharon, Massachusetts. What started originally as a 10-foot windmill in his backyard, based on the one in Ebeltoft where Storkfelt vacationed as a child, quickly turned into an entire village. Storkfelt added his grandmother's cottage and outhouse (with bedstemor inside), the Ebeltoft town hall, another yellow house, and the church. Each building possessed an intricate amount of detail, and as an electrician, Storkfelt made sure to light them up, too. He completed the village by handcarving townspeople based on his family and friends plus a number of other outdoor accessories to give the town its life. 

The collection was admitted to the Fuller Museum of Art shortly before Storkfelt passed away in 1998. It was then relocated to the Museum of Danish America as another cherished creation by a Danish immigrant. We accepted MoDA's request to receive the bulk of the collection in 2015, and with the help of the Shelby County Community Foundation, curated an outdoor exhibit for the surviving structures. For a more detailed history of the exhibit including some of its return to Storkfelt's family, see our newsletter The Breeze, Volume 1, Issue 2 (2023). 

Unfortunately, today the exhibit is in a rapidly decaying state. The windmill has since been removed and the remaining three buildings remain with some recent alterations and repairs, including new steeples for the church and town hall put on in 2022. After so many years exposed to the elements, the exhibit is heading into the final years of its life before we will eventually have to either overhaul the structures with new materials or remove them altogether. Until then, we are doing what we can to preserve Storkfelt's work and legacy.

OLD WIND AXLE EXHIBIT

In 2018, the windmill's original windshaft was replaced with a new one made by B.E. Hassett Millwrights, Inc. It has since been sitting on the grounds and unfortunately has been left exposed to the elements for several years now.  As a result of the project which included replacing the axle, Hassett still has the mill's original brakewheel assembly at his shop in Kentucky. 

We are aiming to reacquire the missing pieces and build a covered, outdoor exhibit of the original brakewheel and windshaft at least partly reassembled for visitors to experience and interact with up close.

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