Who are these people? Where did they come from? Where did they go?
Organized immigration from Scandinavia is generally considered to have begun with the arrival of the Restauration, a ship from Norway in 1825. The Restauration carried 52 people, may of whom were Norwegian Quakers. The ship was well over capacity, and the ship was impounded and the captain arrested. John Quincy Adams pardoned the caption. These immigrants settled in New York, but many subsequent Scandinavian immigrants bypassed New York entirely, and went directly to the north Central US.
You can see this in maps of where their descendants live today. Right now, I’m going to focus on the Norwegians, Swedes and Finns. Many European immigrants first came to New York and moved across the country over decades. Scandinavian immigrants tended to come directly from the old country to settle in the upper Midwest. Many didn’t even come to American ports, coming in through Canadian ports.
Minnesota has the largest number of people of Scandinavian descent, #1 in Norwegians and Swedes and a close #2 in Finns. By percentage, North Dakota is #1 in Norwegians, with 30% of North Dakotans claiming Norwegian ancestry to Minnesota’s 16.5%. Minnesota is #1 in Swedes by percentage as well, with 9.9% to North Dakota’s 5.0%. I don’t have the percentages available offhand, but Michigan is #1 in percentage of Finns, and Minnesota #2. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan has a lot of Finns. I remember people in the UP pronouncing Marquette as “market”, because as I was told, the stress was on the first syllable in Finnish. I’m not saying that everyone in the UP pronounced it that way, just that, at least decades ago, some did.
In and around Minnesota, we don’t call it a casserole, it’s a hot dish. It’s not “Duck Duck Goose”, it’s “Duck Duck Gray Duck”, from the Swedish “Anka Anka Grå Anka”. WCCO - Why do Minnesotans say "Duck Duck Gray Duck"? Star Tribune - Why is a casserole called hot dish in Minnesota?
And you’ve all heard about the lutefisk. If you haven’t, it’s cod that’s been dried and preserved with lye. It’s rehydrated and rinsed before cooking. And it tastes as bad as it sounds. But some people love it because it tastes like Christmas. Amazing what people will do for tradition. Now, people can get fish all year long, but lutefisk still remains a Christmas tradition for some. I remember a t-shirt that said “You don’t have to enjoy the taste to enjoy lutefisk.” That’s what tradition does for you. I’m just glad it was never part of my family’s tradition.
And we do have foods that aren’t Lovecraftian nightmares. There’s lefse, a potato flatbread that’s great with butter and brown sugar. It looks like a tortilla, but it wouldn’t hold up in a burrito. Then there’s rosettes, a thin crispy cookie. You dip the rosette iron in a thin batter and then into hot oil. And there’s krumkake (literally, “curved cake”), a waffle cookie that’s rolled up. The pasty’s origins are in Cornwall, not Finland, but it’s so popular in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, that a lot of people think it is Finnish.
Danish Americans are one Scandinavian group which are not primarily in the upper Midwest. California has the most, followed by Utah. Apparently, there was significant migration of Danish Mormons in the middle of the 19th century. DANISH IMMIGRATION AND LIFE IN UTAH Minnesota is #3 in Danes.
Distribution of Danish Americans
Krumkake
Lefse, a Scandinavian staple
Map of where Norwegian Americans live
.Map of where Swedish Americans live
Map of Finnish Americas
Rosettes