Norwegian people began arriving in Alberta, from Norway, around 1892. Norway is a country in Europe. Things in Norway at this time were very bad and a lot of people left in search of a better place to live and farm. Edmund Thompson, one of the first Norwegians to arrive in the west, came to central Alberta in 1893, and told other Norwegians to do the same. He worked as a land guide for many years, and actually guided the first residents of Bardo, Alberta to their homesteads (piece of land for their homes) in the late 1890s.
Evan and Ludvik Olstad, brothers from Norway, came to what is now the village of New Norway, Alberta with other relatives and friends in 1892. In 1903, a large number of Norwegian people came to Alberta and began living in the areas around Olds and Wetaskiwin. By 1911, there were 5,761 people in the province who had been born in Norway.
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