Norway

Norway is named after the Scandinavian country, which was the home to several of the community’s early settlers including its founder, Hans Erasmus Hiorth. In the early 1830s, Hiorth constructed a dam across the Tippecanoe River for his sawmill. The dam was built two and half miles north of Monticello. Later, a gristmill and woolen mill were built in the area.

The settlement began to rival neighboring Monticello in size and was formally laid out in 1845 by Bergetta Hiorth, Hans’ wife. The village was originally called Mount Walleston. Hans had died and in his will instructed executors to “lay out a village on my place to be called Mount Walleston in honor of the first ship that landed me in America.”

During the late nineteenth century, the village’s population dwindled. A post office named Norway was established on January 14, 1898 but closed less than two years later on December 30, 1899. Norway experienced a revival with the construction of the Norway Dam in 1923. The hydroelectric dam created Lake Shafer.

Currently, Norway is made up of nearly 400 residents and a few businesses. Pine View Golf Course is located just south of Norway. It would be remiss of me to not mention that Indiana Beach Amusement Resort is located just north of Norway on Lake Shafer. Globetrotting Indiana can verify that there’s more than corn in Indiana!

Sources:

• Baker, R. L. (1995). From Needmore to Prosperity : Hoosier place names in folklore and history. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• (1994). White County interim report. [Indianapolis]: Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana.
• U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). Norway CDP, Indiana, Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 [Data]. 2010 demographic profile data. Retrieved from http://factfinder2.census.gov

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