by David Hill
and Jan Strandlie
Why would two people credited with bringing modern skiing to America move to the nearly featureless plains of northwestern Minnesota?
Few people know in this area know the history of two of the most famous skiers in the world and how one of the Hemmestveit brothers came to settle in the Goodridge area. An exhibit on Norwegian immigration on display in Thief River Falls only hints at the story. In the exhibition, titled “New Land, New Life!”, a local resident noticed that a picture of the Stillwater Ski Club includes a picture of Mikkel Hemmestveit. The picture is included in the display now located at Northern State Bank in Thief River Falls through September.
Mikkel and Torjus Hemmestveit were from the village of Morgedal in Telemark. They grew up on the Nigard Hemmestveit farm and learned ski technique from Sondre Norheim, who is known as the father of modern skiing. Both Mikkel and Torjus, however, were also known for their skiing ability and in fact, when Mikkel emigrated in 1886, he had just won his second combined championship (jumping and cross-country skiing) in a row at Norway’s Huseby meet, the forerunner of the national Holmenkollen championship. The brothers also had a key role in the development of Telemark skiing by creating the world’s first skiing school in 1881 at Christiania, Norway (now known as Oslo).
The brothers and Sondre Norheim were known for changing jumping technique from the retraction style of the mid 1800s, with both legs drawn up under the body, to the “Red Wing” or Telemark style, a straight stance that allows the heels to come up from the ski because the heel is free.
At the age of 23, Mikkel, immigrated to America. He was followed two years later by his older brother, Torjus. Their sister, Aasne, also emigrated. (Aasne married Peder Ramstad and settled in the Ada area. She died in 1921.) Initially, Mikkel and Torjus moved to southern Minnesota, but moved to the Ada area to join relatives who were already living there. Mikkel and Torjus eventually moved to the Red Wing area where Mikkel was working for the Red Wing Furniture Company, and they could take advantage of the natural bluffs in the area to ski. Both began making skis and bobsleds for wealthy Norwegian-Americans. They also helped establish a ski club, and became known as “The Crazy Norwegians from the North Pole.” (When the brothers moved to America, they changed the spelling of their surname to Hemmestvedt.)
The Aurora Ski Club, organized in Red Wing in 1886, was the first ski club in America of note, though the year before, clubs had been organized both in St. Paul and Minneapolis, and in Altoona, Penn.
In Aurora, Chris Boxrud and the Hemmestvedts worked to make their favorite winter activity a sport instead of a recreational pastime. With no governing body, no rules for its competition, and no standards for its ski hills, ski jumpers performed for prize money, prestige and fun. The group developed a six-point ski jumping scoring system based on both style and jump length that reflected the sport’s Norwegian traditions. The Red Wing club first used the new process in their 1890 tournament.
The first actual recorded ski tournament in the Midwest took place in St. Paul on Jan. 25, 1887. Hemmestvedt and his brother Torjus took the sport to Red Wing, with an exhibition tourney on Feb. 8, 1887, sponsored by the Aurora Ski Club of Red Wing. The first recorded North American distance record was set in 1887 by Mikkel Hemmestvedt when he flew 37 feet.
Over the years, the Hemmestvedt brothers captured many ski records in ski jumping and cross-country skiing, and made Red Wing an early center of ski competition.
In 1891, C.L. Opsahl, a newspaper correspondent for The North, praised the Hemmestvedt brothers stating that they taught all Norway to stand on skis and Norwegians in this country to handle their skis.
In March of 1891, Mikkel scheduled a trip to Norway to dispose of property, which would also be in time for his wife, Bergit, to deliver her baby in the Homeland. Before they left, however, Bergit died in childbirth and so did the baby. Mikkel cancelled the trip, but eventually did return to Norway to live.
Just weeks after Bergit’s death, Torjus’ wife, Tone, died of tuberculosis in Red Wing. Torjus had two children with Tone – Torjus Jr. (1886) and Emma (1888).
Mikkel moved home to Morgedal in 1894 and assumed ownership of the farm Suigard Kallåk. Torjus returned to his farm in the Red River Valley with his second wife. He had married his first wife’s sister, Margit Hylland, who had migrated at the age of 17 to Forest City, Iowa. She bore him a son, Sidney, on Nov. 15, 1895.
A relative of the Hemmestvedt brothers stated that Mikkel remarried. She said his second wife was also from Morgedal. She said they had four children: Torjus, Olav, Birgit, and Anne.
One source stated that Mikkel did not return to Norway permanently, as he is buried in an unmarked grave in Red Wing. However, another source states that Mikkel died in 1951 in Morgedal, Norway.
In 1898, Torjus lost all of his carpentry and carving tools when their home near Ada burned to the ground.
In 1904, when the 11 townships on the Red Lake Indian Reservation were opened for homesteading, Torjus, filed a claim on land near Goodridge. They brought only their clothing, as all else had been destroyed in the Ada fire.
Additional children born to Torjus were Sidney (1895), Myrtle (1900), Einar (1901), Ella (1905), who only lived a short time, and Bjorge (1909), Myrtle (1911) and Gilman (1918). In 1915, Torjus worked for a machine dealer in Thief River Falls. In 1918, he worked for A.B. Mandt at Goodridge, buying grain and milling flour.
In 1921, the present Telemarken Church was built by Torjus. His health was beginning to fail so he had much help from Sidney, his son, who was 25 at this time. Torjus died in 1931, at the age of 68. He is buried at Telemarken Church. His second wife, Margit, passed away in 1966 at the age of 92. She too is buried in the cemetery at Telemarken Church.
In 1928, the King of Norway awarded Mikkel and Torjus the Holmenkollen-medal, Norwegian skiing’s highest award for competitors.
Harvey Hemmestvedt, the only living relative of Torjus Sr. still in Goodridge said he began doing some research awhile back and discovered that this world record holding champion skier was buried in Goodridge and no one knew anything about it. Hemmestvedt still has the Homenkollen-medal proclamation, but not the medal.
Harvey is the son of Gilman, a son of Torjus. Hemmestvedt said that skiing and Torjus’ records were rarely talked about when he was growing up. When he asked about the medals, he was told they all burned up, and that was the end of the discussion.
He added that no one in his family skis. He said he once skied behind a pickup, but that’s about it.