The Vikur Lutheran Church at Mountain is an historic

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

church building in

Mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...

Pembina County, North Dakota Pembina County is a county in the U.S. state of North Dakota. At the 2020 census its population was 6,844. The county seat is Cavalier. History For thousands of years, various indigenous peoples inhabited the area along the Pembina and Red r ...

. Built in 1885, it is the oldest Icelandic Lutheran church in the United States. The Gothic Revival wood-frame building was built in land donated in 1881 by the pastor Páll Thorláksson, who was influential in establishing the

Icelandic American Icelandic Americans are Americans of Icelandic descent or Iceland-born people who reside in the United States. Icelandic immigrants came to the United States primarily in the period 1873–1905 and after World War II. There are more than 40,000 I ...

community in the area, and who died in 1882, before its construction. Most of the wood used to build Vikur Lutheran Church at Mountain came from the land owned by Friðbjörn Björnsson, who emigrated from Iceland in 1873, leaving from the farm Baldursheimur in Möðruvallaklaustur Parish, Eyjafjarðarsysla, and homesteaded east of Mountain on Cart Creek in 1881. The church and associated cemetery were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2013.

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Vikur Lutheran ChurchThe Founding of the Icelandic Settlement in Dakota
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in North Dakota Lutheran churches in North Dakota Carpenter Gothic church buildings in North Dakota Churches completed in 1884 Icelandic-American culture in North Dakota National Register of Historic Places in Pembina County, North Dakota 1884 establishments in Dakota Territory Church of Iceland {{NorthDakota-church-stub

See also

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