Solvang Centennial 1911-2011

From ‘sunny field’and dairy farms, a city grows and thrives

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL 1911-2011

32 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

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A SPECIAL PUBLICATION FROM THE SANTA YNEZ VALLEY NEWS

2 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Contents

Special year honors traditions G

Chapters 1: Chumash, Spanish blaze a trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2: Danes find their ‘sunny field’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3: Storms can’t douse founders’ fervor . . . . . . . 10 4: The new town grows roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 5: Cars arrive, a town matures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 6: Traditions take shape in 1930s . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 7: World war brings big changes . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 8: Danish theme picks up steam . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 9: Milestones fill half-century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 10: Valley has roots in farming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 11: Food makes powerful connection . . . . . . . . . 28 12: Special year highlights traditions . . . . . . . . . 30

From the Mayor Letter to residents 50 years in the future . . . . . 31

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL A special section for the

SANTA MARIA TIMES

A LEE ENTERPRISES NEWSPAPER 423 Second Street, Solvang, CA 93463

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Executives & Staff Publisher Cynthia Schur 688-5522,ext.2154

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Prince Consort Henrik of Denmark waves to the crowd during the city’s centennial celebration on June 11,2011, at Solvang Park.

CENTENNIAL HIGHLIGHTS The celebration of Solvang’s centennial included special events throughout 2011.Some of the biggest were:

January Kickoff dinner and party at Hotel Corque Elverhoj Museum of History and Art designated as the first stop on the new Heritage Trail Elverhoj Museum publishes “Spirit of Solvang”book and opens companion photo exhibit

February Work begins on Centennial Plaza,a paved space on the east side of Alisal Road intended to provide information,shade and a place to rest for shoppers and tourists,as well as commemorate the city’s centennial Santa YnezValley Historical Museum opens exhibit honoring Ronald Reagan’s centennial year,highlighting his relationship with the Santa YnezValley and Rancho del Cielo Bethania Lutheran Church,Solvang School and Atterdag Village added to Heritage Trail Farstrup-Mortensen Lecture Series invites scholars to speak on the life and work of the 19th century Danish pastor, writer and educator N.F.S.Grundtvig, known as the founder of Danish “folk schools,” such as the one built by Solvang’s earliest settlers

during their first stormy winter,those pioneers made sure that creation of a library and a church were among their first priorities.

The Nielsen family’s grocery store also celebrated 100 years,testimony to the speed with which the Danish newcomers got down to business, and the town’s many annual festivals give ample proof of the early and continuing emphasis on building community through fellowship.

This commemorative section tries to give today’s readers a sense of who those people were.It tries to wrap some flesh and blood around the dates and historical data that otherwise tell the town’s story.

Inside this section you’ll find 12 chapters of the community’s history and traditions that were published monthly in a series

throughout 2011,in addition to a brief description of some of the major events that occurred during the year-long celebration.

Many people deserve thanks for the creation of this section,but none more than Executive Director Esther Jacobsen Bates,her staff and volunteers at the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art. Without their treasure trove of historical photography and information — and their willingness to share it — this publication would not have been possible.

We were also proud to have had the services of Sally Cappon,a freelance journalist whose “Roadside Attractions” columns in our newspaper are only the latest example of the writing she has done in Santa Barbara County for decades.

March

Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II,is welcomed in Solvang Parkand featured at a dinner on the grounds of RusackVineyard Solvang Library celebrates 100 years of service

the “Second CenturyStreet Party” The Bit O’Denmark Restaurant,site of Danish immigrants’first folk school, added to Heritage Trail

July

Dozens of people take guided 10-day centennial tour of Denmark organized by the Centennial Committee and led by committee member Linda Johansen Danish craft and art demonstrations and exhibits at the Elverhoj Museum Heritage Trail adds Mission Santa Ines and the nearby“mission mills”property, which is being restored as a state historical park

Heritage Trail adds sites that exemplify Solvang’s culinary tradition,including numerous modern bakeries and the former sites of Dania Hall and H.C. “Butcher”Hansen’s meat market.

Grand View University Choir from Des Moines,Iowa,performs at Bethania Lutheran Church Rejsegilde,or “topping out,” ceremony celebrates imminent completion of Centennial Plaza

April Hans Christian Andersen Museum celebrates the writer’s 206th birthday Middle school students from Aalborg, Denmark,stay with local families and visit Solvang School Solvang Library and Veterans Memorial Building added to Heritage Trail

May Folk Dance Federation of America Convention at Bethania Lutheran Church Solvang hosts time trial for Amgen Tour of California Heritage Trail adds the community’s symbolic windmills

June Danish Brotherhood and Sisterhood Lodges throughout California District convene in Solvang Grundlovsdag Community Picnic in Hans Christian Andersen Park to celebrate Denmark’s Constitution Day Prince Consort Henrik,husband of

Thisted Men and Boys Choir performs at Bethania Lutheran Church “Danish By Design”exhibit at Elverhoj Fourth of July festivities Heritage Trail adds Little Mermaid replica at Denmarket Square

August Mission Santa Ines annual fiesta “My Fairytale,” a musical with Hans Christian Andersen as its main character, has its American premiere at Solvang Festival Theater Solvang Festival Theater added to Heritage Trail Centennial worship service,Bethania Lutheran Church

September “Team Solvang 100,” a group of primarily Danish cyclists with former U.S. Ambassador to DenmarkJames Cain, arrives after seven-day charity ride from San Francisco Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College announces plans for an international education program in cooperation with Santa YnezValley Union High School Danish Days celebrates its 75th anniversary,including a visit bythe mayor of Sister CityAalborg,Denmark; performances by the Aalborg Police Band; and a newevent,

October

November Heritage Trail adds Copenhagen Square, the first local commercial building to use the Danish provincial architectural style that has come to identify downtown Solvang

December Julefest parade honors Centennial Committee members as grand marshals Downtown businesses sponsor Christmas trees as part of “100 Trees for 100 Years”display

January 2012 Heritage Trail dedication features placement of a time capsule under the paving at Centennial Plaza Bethania Lutheran Church celebrates its 100th birthday Centennial year officially closes with “Second Century Celebration”dinner at Hotel Corque

Lee Central Coast Newspapers — February 9, 2012 — 3

An edition of the

Mark Brown/Staff

ood-bye,centennial; hello,second century.

Solvang has now completed its year-long celebration of 100 years since the community’s founding by Danish-American pioneers, whose earliest ambitions and ideals continue to shape the city today.

In Solvang of 2012,there are many remnants of those first Danes’emphasis on education,religion and family; their ethic of common sense and hard work; and their insistence on having a good time whenever possible.

Both the library and the first Protestant congregation, Bethania Lutheran Church, celebrated their centennials right along with the town.Despite the practical hardships of starting a new colony,including sometimes living in tents

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 1: Chumash, Spanish blaze a trail Mission Santa Ines founded in 1804

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T

he land was good.

Buttressed on the south and east by rugged mountains,cleansed by breezes from the ocean to the west,the verdant valley now called Santa Ynez — though that name came much later — attracted settlers long ago.

A site at the Santa Ynez River’s mouth dates back 9,000 years,said John Johnson,curator of anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and a nationally recognized authority on the Chumash.

Where did the newcomers come from? Scientists today trace their beginnings to migrations across the Bering Strait.But,said Kathleen Conti,director of Museum Programs,Research and Resources for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, some Chumash believe they arrived via a Rainbow Bridge.

Take your choice.

The newcomers settled in villages along the Santa Ynez River and its tributaries, building dome-shaped houses of tule reeds.Altogether,21 of these villages — later called rancherias by the Spanish — were built from the mouth of the Santa Ynez River at Surf to the river’s headwaters,including one that’s now under Lake Cachuma.One village was said to house 250 people, Johnson said.

“Present tribal members can trace their ancestry to villages in the valley,” he added.

Villages,some in place for thousands of years,bore such names as ‘Aquitsu’m, Wililik’and Teqepsh in the Chumash language,said Conti.Many modern place names were derived from the Chumash language — for

example,Lompoc is named for a rancheria meaning “stagnant water,” Johnson said with some apology.

The largely peaceful Chumash lived a life centered on family,religious ceremonies,work,the natural world and a love of games and music.Typical villages had a sweathouse,a playing field and ceremonial grounds for traditional festivals.

Abundant resources in the valley sustained these populations for more than 300 generations,Conti said.

Hunters and gatherers,the early Indians thrived on acorns from the oak groves and pine nuts from the mountains.Wild cherry pits, boiled and mashed to eliminate poisons,were another nutritious foodstuff.Seeds and berries came from numerous native plants such as sage.Game,including deer and rabbits,was plentiful.

Fish were abundant in rivers.

The Chumash,Johnson noted,were famous for “world-renowned rock paintings”and for their exquisite basketry,making tightly twined baskets used for many purposes such as gathering acorns,preparing food and holding water.

Also well known for making bead money,these highly successful traders did business with their coastal brethren,following wellbeaten trails.

One such trail brought newcomers over the mountains early in the 1800s.They were Spanish padres intent on setting up a chain of missions throughout Southern California and Christianizing the natives.

Finding in the valley a large number of souls,and wanting to shorten the trek from Santa Barbara and the next mission to the north,La Purisima Concepcion,the padres chose a riverside bluff for the 19th of their 21 missions.

Contributed/Mission Santa Ines

This photograph taken between 1904 and 1911,looking west from Mission Santa Ines,shows the mission in disrepair and only vacant land on the site of present-day Solvang.The arrival of Danish settlers in 1911 spurred development of the town.

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

Mission Santa Ines was one of the most prosperous in Alta California but it fell into disrepair,as shown in this photograph from the 1880s.

On Sept.17,1804,the padres under Father Estavan Tapis founded a mission, naming it in honor of St. Agnes — Santa Ines in Spanish (later corrupted to Santa Ynez).

The padres got to work converting the natives,who gave up their tule houses and came to live at the mission.

The results were two-fold.

While Santa Ines became one of the most prosperous missions,largely due to the valley’s productive crops of wheat,barley,corn and beans plus grazing for livestock, many Indians died of introduced diseases — measles, smallpox and others.

A natural disaster also

muddled the padres’building efforts — the giant 1812 earthquake which rocked Southern California.While there was damage at Santa Ines,no one died — less lucky was La Purisima in presentday Lompoc,where the mission was destroyed and several Chumash were killed.

Leaving the shadow of a massive gouge carved in a hillside at the former site, those padres built a new mission complex several miles to the north,where today La Purisima has been restored as a state park.

At Santa Ines,padres worked at building a new mission,using pine beams from the San Rafael Mountains.The mission church, essentially the same one that exists today just steps east of the heart of downtown Solvang,was dedicated in 1817.

The next century was not particularly kind to the mission,with a series of ups and downs.

In 1824 a rare Indian revolt, reportedly triggered by an ugly incident involving one of the Chumash,took place and spread to Santa Barbara before it was quashed.

Meanwhile,an intricate water system and waterpowered grist and fulling mills (used to process wool cloth) were built just east of the mission,and Indians painted the interior of the mission in colorful designs that can still be seen today.

In the 1830s,secularization,in which mission lands were put under government control,marked the downfall of the mission period, though Santa Ines enjoyed a brief reprise when a college, El Colegio de Nuestra Senora del Refugio,was established in 1843.

The college,the first in Alta California,lasted less then 40 years.The Chumash were allowed to leave the mission and most scattered, some settling on land nearby.

Despite efforts of a few valiant padres,time and weather sent the mission into neglect and decay.

Orchards withered and died.

But as the 20th century dawned,unforeseen events were to occur that would change both the mission and the valley forever.

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Lee Central Coast Newspapers — February 9, 2012 — 5

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SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 2: Danes find their ‘sunny field’ New century gives birth to new colony

6 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

A

t the start of the 20th century,the Santa Ynez Valley was awakening to fresh opportunities.

The new communities of Ballard,Santa Ynez and Los Olivos were well established.

The narrow-gauge Pacific Coast Railway,arriving from the north and ending at Los Olivos,was trundling in more residents and lumber for homes and businesses.

Completion of the coastal Southern Pacific rail line in 1901 marked the final run of the stagecoach route over San Marcos Pass.However,a short stagecoach line still ran from Los Olivos through the Alisal over Nojoqui Grade to Gaviota,where it met coastal trains.

Remaining in operation through much of the next decade,it became quite possibly the oldest stagecoach run in America.

Things were also stirring a few miles south and west of the other villages,at the Santa Ines Mission.A new pastor, Father Alexander Buckler,was appointed in 1904 to lead the church,then a set of decrepit, rundown buildings.He convinced his niece,Mamie Goulet,to join him from Minnesota.Mamie,grief-stricken over the death of her fiancé in a hunting accident,was thrilled at the prospect of going to what she pictured as a golden land.

Instead,stepping off the stage at the mission,she found “the ruins of a dejected and forgotten fort with crumbling walls scarcely discernible against the sunparched landscape of the valley,” she wrote in her autobiography,“Santa Ines Hermosa.”

No other houses were in sight.The larder was virtually empty,with only limited staples at the general stores in

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

Land agent Mads Frese stands,left to right,with the three founders of Solvang — Professor Peder P.Hornsyld,the Rev.Benedict Nordentoft and the Rev.Jens M. Gregersen — in 1910 near present-day Ballard Canyon Road on land they had recently purchased for the new Danish colony.

Santa Ynez.Faced with the mission’s deteriorating walls, broken windows and doors, rickety furnishings,unsavory cookware,tattered vestments, adobe-melting rains and unwanted visitors — snakes,spiders,wildcats,bats and screech owls (which she mistook for ghosts) — she was sure she couldn’t remain.But stay she did.

Over the next years,she and Buckler pitched in to restore the mission,repairing water

and drainage systems,adding a new roof and — Mamie’s huge contribution — discovering and repairing prized, centuries-old vestments worn by the priests.

Buckler and Mamie “saved the mission,” wrote Father Zephyrin Engelhardt,a noted mission historian.

Meanwhile,far to the east,a group of Lutheran religious leaders in the Midwest also had a dream — establishment of a Danish colony on the West Coast.

War and economic hardship in Denmark,plus the availability of land in America, had driven the Danes to the upper Midwest.There they had set up their dairies, churches and communities designed to preserve their traditions in a land similar in climate and terrain to their homeland.Now visionaries looked further.One,the Rev. Benedict Nordentoft,president of Grand View College in Des Moines,Iowa,as early as

1906 envisioned such an allDane colony on the West Coast.

In June 1910,at the annual convention of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church on the shores of Lake Michigan,the Rev.Jens M. Gregersen,pastor of a church in Cedar Falls,Iowa,announced plans to buy land on the West Coast.

The heart of the colony would be a folk school for Danish youth and a church.

Lutheran convention delegates,it was said,were enthusiastic.Gregersen,Nordentoft and Peder P.Hornsyld,a professor at Grand View College, all Danish immigrants to the United States,were named to an exploration committee.

On Oct.1,1910,the Danish American Colony was incorporated in California,with 34 stockholders,and the colony began looking for land suitable See DANES / 8

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SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

DANES: Continued from page 6 for farming.Several places in Oregon and Northern California were inspected and rejected.

In California,a fourth person who was to play a key role in the selection process,Salinas farmer Mads Frese,was approached by Hornsyld about the plan for a new colony.

Frese,too,loved the idea — becoming so enamored with it that he sold his ranch and became the group’s agricultural advisor.Assigned to search for an appropriate location,he inspected several places in Northern California but found them unsuitable.

On a return trip from Marysville he saw an advertisement in an agricultural publication for a large parcel of land in the Santa Ynez Valley.He decided to make an inspection trip,riding the narrow-gauge train from San Luis Obispo to Los Olivos.

Contributed/Mission Santa Ines

When Father Alexander Buckler and his niece,Mamie Goulet,arrived in 1904 they found Mission Santa Ines in disrepair.This photo in 1911 shows damage that See FIELDS / 9 the newly arrived Danes helped to repair.

8 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

Then 1953

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SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

FIELDS: Continued from page 8

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

Many early Danish settlers arrived by train at Gaviota (pictured) or Los Olivos,then rode horseback into Solvang.

The land he saw had once been part of the sprawling Mexican-era Rancho San Carlos de Jonata land grant.Later it had been purchased by R.T. Buell,who ranched it until a drought hit and he was forced in 1890 to sell 10,000 prime acres — where he had once dreamed of establishing a town — to the Santa Ynez Valley Development Company.

Inspecting the property, Frese found the fertile acreage, nearby winding river and protective mountains “just right for our needs”and urged the committee members to join him and see it.

When they did so in December 1910 they swiftly agreed,buying 8,882 acres for $338,000 with a down payment of $5,000.

H.C.Hansen suggested the name Solvang,which in Danish means “sunny field,” and on Jan.23,1911,a new community was born.

Lee Central Coast Newspapers — February 9, 2012 — 9

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 3: Rain can’t douse founders’ fervor 18 inches in 12 days crushed mission bell tower

10 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

S

olvang’s founding year, 1911, was not the most propitious time to start a new community.

When the town’s founders bought 8,882 acres for the new Danish community on Jan. 23, 1911, they paid $338,000 with $5,000 down. However, the land development company that sold them the property imposed three conditions to make sure of getting its money or getting its land back.

■ The Danish American Colony had to sell $100,000 worth of land per year to new settlers.

■ A school would be established before the end of the year, no later than November 1911.

■ The Rev. Jens M. Gregersen, one of the founders, would move to the new colony and become pastor of a church that was to be formed.

Quickly, lots were surveyed and advertisements were placed in DanishAmerican newspapers around the country. Originally, founders envisioned that the school and church would be built on the north end of the property around today’s Ballard Canyon Road, but because of a lack of water in that area, they chose a site close to Mission Santa Ines instead.

Then, just a month and two days after the town was founded, the rains came — in a very big way.

It had already been a rainy winter; all told, more 40 inches of rain fell that year.

But for 12 days starting in late February it rained incessantly, according to journal entries by Mamie Goulet Abbott, niece of the mission’s pastor.

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

This panoramic image of early Solvang,made around 1912,shows Mission Santa Ines on the left.In the center are the first two major structures built by the Danish settlers,the folk school and the Solvang Hotel.To the right are early Solvang businesses and homes.

More than 18 inches fell in that 12-day period, according to the mission’s rain gauge. Mission buttresses collapsed. On March 7, as fully 7 inches fell in torrents, the mission’s bell tower collapsed. Adobe soil became like quicksand.

For those first Danish arrivals, under the land company’s deadlines to create the dream community they had named “Sunny Field,” how did that feel? Was this glorious California?

But the weather cleared, and more hardy Danes poured in from elsewhere in California, from Denmark, and from Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Washington, Oregon, New York and Texas.

First to buy land in the new colony was Dr. P. Soe, from Elk Horn, Iowa, who bought 33 acres in February 1911, according to “Spirit of Solvang,” a book just pubContributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art lished by the Elverhoj MuseHans C.D.Skytt,a skilled master builder,arrived on Jan.26,1911,and proceeded to build much of early Solvang,beginning with um of History and Art.

the Solvang Hotel.This photo captures Skytt,left,and his crew near the kitchen window of his first home at the corner of Pine See FERVOR / 12 and Mission.

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SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

FERVOR:

12 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

Continued from page 10 Five- to 10-acre plots with the promise of a “pleasant home� were selling for $25 to $130 an acre, with the lure of higher ground to be surveyed soon.

Mads Frese,the Salinas land agent who had found the Solvang property for the town’s founders when they were still in the Midwest, sold many of the lots,getting a parcel of land in return.

The earliest arrivals stayed in tents or rented houses in Ballard and Los Olivos.

Hans Skytt, a young Danish-born builder who arrived within a week of the founding, constructed many of Solvang’s first buildings.

Once here, he quickly started to work on the Solvang Hotel, which provided newcomers with a Contributed/Mission Santa Ines place to stay after it opened After 18 inches of rain in 12 days damaged Mission Santa Ines in 1911,Danish settlers rallied to help rebuild the bell tower.The row of three spaces for bells was a in July 1911 on present-day mistake,later corrected to two.

Alisal Road.

Hans Peter Jensen, his air — rain or shine. dents sat on hay bales and with Goulet recalling,“One tributing $2,000 for the asking to borrow a bottle of wife and three children arBy the end of 1911, studied by candlelight. morning, there came nine or school, a temporary twowine for communion in his rived in June and by NoSolvang had grown to 79 Classes were taught pri10 men� cheerfully working story structure was built improvised church. vember had moved into residents. marily in Danish, with stuThough wine was hard to on the roof, restoring its his- next to the Solvang Hotel, their new home on Mission On New Year’s Eve, bells dents learning such things toric appearance. where the Bit O’ Denmark Drive, the first house built in come by, Buckler offered a as the English language, ge- rang out from the mission’s Now it was time to work Restaurant now stands. It bottle as “a token of my Solvang. rebuilt bell tower and on the ography, history and govopened on Nov. 15, 1911, on another of the early refriendship for you and your

By September,streets following day, Jan. 1, 1912, ernment as well as Bible quirements for the colony — with 21 students. people,� according to were surveyed.Sophus the Danish Evangelical studies and penmanship.

Two classrooms were on a folk school, that distincOlsen opened a general store. Goulet’s account in the Lutheran Bethania congreNordentoft was the first the first floor with six sleeptive Danish institution dejournal she called “Santa The Lutheran Danes signed for young adults as a ing rooms for women on the head of the school, with gation was formed, with struck up a cordial relation- Ines Hermosa� (“Beautiful Gregersen and Hornsyld second. Men stayed at the “school for life.�

Santa Ines�).

Gregersen as pastor. ship with their Catholic Solvang Hotel until a dormi- among the teachers. No exWith the three founders, When the bell tower colIn a year, two-thirds of brethren. Early on, ams or grades were given, Gregersen, the Rev. Benedict tory was built. While stulapsed, Buckler sought the the requirements for the Gregersen paid a courtesy and Danish gymnastics dents arrived, the furnishNordentoft and educator Danes’ help in restoring the new colony had been fulcall on the mission pastor, classes were held in the open filled.

Peter P. Hornsyld each con- ings did not — early stumission. They complied, Father Alexander Buckler,

The Friars, Staff, and parish members of Old Mission Santa InĂŠs would like to congratulate our Danish community in Solvang for a truly inspirational Centennial Year, 2011.

Best wishes for the next 100 years!

Old Mission Santa InĂŠs 1760 Mission Drive 4PMWBOH $" r

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SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 4: The new town grows roots Volunteers pitch in to build Atterdag College

14 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

B

y 1912 the small village of Solvang had one foot on solid ground.

A year after the first settlers arrived, stores were starting to spring up to provide basic necessities. There was a general store and a creamery along with the busy hotel and new folk school. Church services were held at the hotel.

But the colony was experiencing financial difficulties, with much of the land still unsold. The Rev. Jens M. Gregersen was persuaded to give up his position as pastor of the new church to return to the Midwest to promote the “new land” to friends in Iowa and Nebraska. He was successful, and a year later most of the acreage was sold.

Weather was also uncertain. For farmers from the Midwest, accustomed to regular summer rains, California’s unreliable winter rains were a problem. In 1912 rains came late, with three inches coming as late as May 20th. The following year was dry, followed by another wet year, with 40 inches recorded in 1914.

Still, farmers practicing “dry land” techniques grew alfalfa, barley and beans.

The problem was somewhat alleviated when a cooperative irrigation system from Alamo Pintado Creek was started in 1912.

Meanwhile, over at the folk school, philosophical differences had emerged between the town’s founders. The Rev. Benedict Nordentoft wanted to see the Danish language preserved and the school enlarged. Gregersen and Professor Peder P. Hornsyld disagreed.

In 1913 Nordentoft bought out his partners and took over the folk school, running it privately. Determined to build a larger building, he obtained a loan, soliciting friends in the U.S. and Denmark for money.

Peter and Johanne Albertsen, early settlers, donated six acres on top of a small hill overlooking Solvang. Carl Jensen donated land below in Fredensborg Canyon.

With nearly all the town’s settlers contributing labor or money to the new school, an impressive building soon rose on the hill — a white, gabled, three-story edifice with a porch stretching across much of the front.

On Dec. 1, 1914, the new school opened — bearing a marked resemblance to Grand View College, the school Nordentoft had headed previously in Iowa.

The school, which had originally been known simply as Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art the Young People’s School, also got a new name — AtAtterdag College opened in December 1914.Officially it was named “Atterdag College,den Dansk-Amerikanske Ungdomsskole i terdag College.

Solvang”— “the Danish-American Youth School in Solvang,” but informally,everyone called the school Atterdag.The imposing Atterdag, a Danish exwhite structure overlooking the growing settlement became the embodiment of Solvang’s community spirit. pression of hope that means “There shall be another educational from the start, day,” was said to have been rules were strict: no card suggested to Nordentoft’s playing, no alcohol and no mother, though another attendance at public dances. version says the school was Young women were not named for Valdemar Atterdag, a leading figure in early supposed to be out after 6 p.m.

Denmark.

Most lectures were in At any rate, Gregersen and Danish, though one teacher Hornsyld found the name taught English as a second presumptuous. language. Along with a wide But there was nothing variety of classes, students presumptuous about the new buildings. Students had enjoyed folk dancing, singing, gymnastics and to clean their rooms, which drama productions. Church weren’t heated, and there was no electricity until 1923. services were held in the Students brought their own lecture hall until Bethania Church was built years later, towels and a blanket, although bed linens were pro- as Atterdag College became the educational, religious vided. and social heart of Solvang.

Tuition, room and board Meanwhile,the town was came to $6 a week, and growing.In 1913 Solvang got those living at home paid a Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art its first bank — the Santa $2 tuition fee. The school year was the same as for the Ynez Valley Bank.It occupied Early resident Julia Rasmussen Skov,shown in 1924,washes the family laundry.Many early settlers,especially those on farms,lived in tents or make-shift quarters until a simple house original school — November a building that also housed through March. Though co- the post office,a library, could be built — after the barn had been built to shelter the animals and farm equipment.

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

ROOTS: Continued from page 14 a building that also housed the post office,a library, medical offices and the office of the Danish American Colony.

The same year, Dania Hall was built by members of the Dania Society, a Danish fraternal organization. It remained a community gathering place for decades.

The Danish Lutheran settlers interrupted their work long enough to take part in a celebration marking the 30th anniversary of Father Alexander Buckler’s ordination at the newly rebuilt mission. Buckler’s niece, Mamie Goulet, recalled in her journal that the “neighborly Danes from the newly founded village of Solvang” attended the church services and remained to mingle with visitors and enjoy a sumptuous luncheon afterward.

Through the decade, the town also acquired a butcher shop known for its Danish sausage, a barber shop, bakery, tailor shop, confectionery store (which also offered billiards and 25-cent baths), a boot shop and others.

A two-room elementary school was built in 1915. A flagpole was erected in 1918 to honor World War I veterans.

In addition to the Albertsens’ farm, where people went with pails to buy milk, more dairy farmers arrived.

The Burchardis, among the earliest landowners, arrived in 1917 from Northern California, shipping their cattle by train to Gaviota and herding them to Solvang. Often barns were built before homes.

At the mission, Goulet was impressed with the progress that the “industriContributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art ous, neat, home-loving At left is a corner of the Santa Valley Bank,established in 1913 with capital of $25,000.In the background is Atterdag College. and thrifty” Danes had made. Their water system, had revolutionized and productive, dry land into a farming country, all of and contentment of the she wrote,“in a short time transformed the drab, unbeautiful green and fertile which spelled the well being community.”

THE SOLVANG CENTENNIAL

City Council

Because of your hard work and countless hours we are not just another rural small town along Highway 101 but the “Danish Capital of America”!

Thank you, Mayor Jim Richardson, Council Members Hans Duus, Joan Jamieson, Ken Palmer and Tara Wood.

Lee Central Coast Newspapers — February 9, 2012 — 15

Would like to express our gratitude to the citizens of Solvang, the workforce and the many community groups that made the Solvang Centennial year-long celebration such a spectacular success.

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 5: Cars arrive; a town matures Permanent home built for Bethania Church

16 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

W

ith the dawning of the 1920s,Solvang, founded just nine years earlier,had grown into a typical small town with one distinction — it was decidedly Danish.

Services and other meetings at Bethania Lutheran Church were conducted only in Danish,for example,and still more Danish families were moving in from the Midwest and Denmark.

But the town was taking on a modern look — businesses were moving in or moving to larger quarters.A new businessmen’s association was formed.

Peder Madsen’s Solvang Confectionery Store had moved to First and Main streets.Belying its name,it also housed a billiard hall and barber shop.

There was also a thriving garage,a new clothing store and a furniture store with a mortuary behind it.A laundry opened in an old creamery building.

A sign in the furniture store window read,“Come in and Look Around.If You See Something You Like,I’m Down at the Pool Hall Playing Pinochle.”

Up at Atterdag College, more changes were taking place.The Rev.Benedict Nordentoft,one of the town’s founders,the church’s pastor and president of the college, was growing restless.Newly married and wanting his children educated in his native Denmark,in 1921 he sold the college and 10 acres of land to the Lutheran church for $5,000 and returned permanently to Denmark.

The Rev.Evald Kristensen, who arrived from South Dakota to be Bethania’s pastor and also headmaster at Atterdag,immediately started a building program at the col-

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

When Solvang was founded,part of the plan was to set up an Evangelical Lutheran church as a spiritual center for settlers.In January 1912 a church constitution and bylaws were adopted,but services and activities had no permanent home until Bethania Lutheran Church was dedicated on July 8,1928.

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

As cars and better roads came to Solvang,so did a new kind of business — the service station.The first was Solvang Garage, opened by Knud Moller and Harold Friis in 1912.Their tin building stood on the northeast corner of present-day Mission Drive and Alisal Road,now the site of Svendsgaard’s Lodge. lege.A new Gym Hall was erected using volunteer labor.

Viggo Tarnow came from Minnesota in 1924 to teach

gymnastics and folk dancing, both Danish traditions.The previous year,1923,the school finally got electricity.

A major catastrophe hit the young town when the bank went up in flames in July 1925, but bank business continued

at the Dania Hall until a new bank building was constructed the following year.

About the same time,a

movie theater was started.

By 1925,Leo L.“Jack”Ross and his wife,Gerda Rasmussen Ross,had a modern service station and Chevrolet dealership on the northeast corner of present-day Alisal Road and Mission Drive.

On Dec.11,1925,the Santa Ynez Valley News published its first edition.

Burchardi’s Dairy delivered milk products.Dairy farming, a tradition from their Danish homeland,thrived with farmers growing their own feed — barley,corn,alfalfa and beans.

A Spanish-style arcade with arches styled after nearby Mission Santa Ines was built along the north side of Main Street and became the new home of Mission Bakery.(The arcade is still there,though Main Street is now called Copenhagen Drive.)

There were other changes.

Main Street was paved.

The Coast Route no longer went past the mission and down Alisal Road en route to Nojoqui and Gaviota.A new highway had been laid out and a bridge built over the Santa Ynez River three miles west, sparking development of Buellton.

The river itself became a playground for residents who enjoyed fishing and swimming.

Changes,too,came to the mission.While the building had been restored to much of its historic beauty,the architect of that work,Father Alexander Buckler,was in failing health and resigned in 1924,retiring with his niece,Mamie Goulet, to a home in Santa Barbara where he died in 1930.

But there was still one important thing the village lacked — an honest to goodness Protestant church building of its own.Bethania Lutheran members had shuffled from place to place for services since their congregation was founded in 1912.

The problem was rectified after Peter Bredall,who had come to Solvang in 1912,and his See CARS / 17

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

CARS: Continued from page 16 son Anker donated a portion of their farm land for a church.

Supervising the construction was Hans Skytt,the early builder of Solvang who designed the church from pictures brought from Denmark.

On Sept.11,1927,the Rev. Kristensen laid the cornerstone of the new church.

Built in Danish style,the structure was patterned after a 14th-century church.The handsome interior featured stunning wood carvings on the altar,pulpit,baptismal font and two pastors’chairs done by Jes Smidt of Luck, Wisconsin.

Carved into the pulpit are intricate figures of John,Peter, Paul,Martin Luther and St.Ansgar,patron saint of Denmark.

Smidt offered all the pieces, originally destined for a church in Denmark,to the new Solvang church for $1,000.

Hanging from the ceiling is

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

Solvang’s Main Street in 1919 was a dirt road lined with small,mostly wooden buildings in a nondescript Western frontier style.Aflag pole erected in 1918 at First and Main streets to honor World War I veterans can be seen slightly to the left of center.In the far background is Dania Hall,a community hall built in 1913. a wooden model of a ship,like others often seen in Danish

churches,representing the church as a haven in life’s

stormy seas.

On July 8,1928,the church

was dedicated.The cost: $15,312.

Solvang now had its own

Life Chiropractic

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Happy Centennial Solvang!

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Let the Legacy Continue!!!

Congratulations Solvang 1663 Copenhagen Dr. (805) 688-4065 www.solvangshoe.com

Lee Central Coast Newspapers — February 9, 2012 — 17

of hard work and dedication with spirit and vision.

Family, friends and neighbors working together to create our heritage.

Congratulations on your success from the Families and Partners of

church.The final goal of the town’s founders was complete.

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 6: Traditions take shape in 1930s Birthday party gives birth to Danish Days

18 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

T

he 1930s saw most of America gripped grimly in the Great Depression, but Solvang escaped much of the decade’s hardship.

It was still a small town, and the Depression hit hardest in cities, recalled one Solvang woman who lived through that era. Also, the region’s economy was primarily agricultural, and dairy products were always in demand.

For villagers, the decade was notable for two events that portended bigger things to come. A silver anniversary party in 1936 grew into today’s Danish Days, and the town’s first royal visit in 1939 was the forerunner of future visits by Danish royalty, including one in 2011 as part of Solvang’s 100th birthday celebration.

As the 1930s began,new residents continued to arrive from Denmark and the Midwest,starting small businesses.With school enrollment growing to 32,another classroom was added.The library — reading and learning were highly important to the Danish settlers — moved out of a store into a real estate office and later into a small room in the Veterans Memorial Building,built in 1936 on an empty lot opposite Mission Santa Ines.

In 1931 a fire ravaged the south side of Main Street (now Copenhagen Drive), burning four businesses to the ground — an electrical shop, dental office, needle shop and shoe store. Firefighters from Solvang’s new volunteer fire department, along with others from the county and Lompoc, managed to keep the blaze from spreading further. Stucco

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

When Solvang celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1936,volunteers organized a pageant called “The Last of the Vikings,” which portrayed 9th centuryViking warriors.The large local cast was outfitted in full costumes that were handcrafted by Solvang women. structures replaced the burned buildings.

The next year, the Rancheros Visitadores, a riding group founded in 1930, began the tradition of stopping at Mission Santa Ines for a blessing at the start of their annual ride.

By mid-decade, with Solvang approaching its 25th birthday, residents decided it was time to throw a party to celebrate their Danish heritage.

Grundlovsdag, June 5, a holiday commemorating the signing of the Danish constitution, was chosen for

the start of the big celebration to last through the weekend.

Festivities started Friday evening with a torchlight procession from the El Monte Calzada cross to the Atterdag Bowl, a natural outdoor bowl with seats set into a hillside in Fredensborg Canyon. After an introduction by the Rev. Marius Krog, pastor of Bethania Lutheran Church, there were folk dance performances.

Saturday saw horseshoe tournaments, a barbecue on mission grounds and a fairy

tale pageant at the Atterdag Bowl. Saturday’s festivities concluded with a Danish Pioneer Banquet at Atterdag College and a street dance on Main Street, attended by an estimated 1,000 people.

After Sunday morning church services, for these were religious folk, came a grand parade and a “Last of the Vikings” pageant. The play, written by Rev. Krog and commemorating St. Ansgar, patron saint of Denmark, featured a huge local cast.

Festivities ended with an evening concert at Bethania

Church, which concluded with Mrs. Marcus Nielsen and family donating an organ to the church as a memorial to her husband.

Tragedy, though, hung over the celebration. J. C. (Charles) Wulff, one of the earliest settlers who had constructed the area’s first windmill, died in a fall from a tree at the bowl while helping with festival preparations. An accomplished lapidary, he had carved a stone to be used in the pageants.

Despite the misfortune, however, the anniversary

party was so successful that a second party was held the following year — the start of Danish Days.

On Good Friday — April 7 — of 1939,Solvang celebrated an event few American cities ever have — a visit by royalty.

Red and white Danish flags lined the streets as Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid arrived for a day.

The royal couple attended a Good Friday service at Bethania Church,visited Atterdag College and were feted See TRADITIONS / 19

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

TRADITIONS: Continued from page 18 at a reception at the Veterans Memorial Building,where coffee and pastries were served at candlelit tables.

Continuing that tradition of the Solvang-Denmark relationship,the couple’s sonin-law Prince Consort Henrik,husband of Queen Margrethe ll of Denmark,visited the city June 11,2011,to help celebrate Solvang’s centennial.

He was greeted by a crowd of hundreds at Solvang Park, where he spoke to the audience at length,and later he charmed a smaller group during dinner under a large tent at Rusack Vineyards.

By the end of the 1930s, things were changing in Solvang.Just three years before,the Bethania Church had begun holding once-amonth services in English, portending Solvang’s transformation from a largely Danish community to an

American town.

Atterdag College also became less influential.The last winter class was held in 1937,though Viggo Tarnow and his wife Cora continued to teach a children’s summer program with classes in Danish,handiwork,folk dancing,gymnastics and singing.In winter the building became a guest house.

Meanwhile,far away,a world war that would engulf the Danes’homeland loomed on the horizon.

In 1939 Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid of Denmark visited Solvang.The couple,who became King Frederik IXand Queen Ingrid, are pictured at a reception at the Veterans’Memorial Building.The two girls behind them in Danish costumes are Johanne Johnsen and Johanne Svendsen.

Contributed/ Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

We Celebrated Solvang’s Centennial in Denmark!

Shirley Garvey Jean Albrecht Jennifer Lamensdorf Susan Kraushaar Jim Richardson Jeanette Richardson Debra Scavonie Michele Mason Barbara Barker Susan Barron Lee Christensen Stephanie Smagala Karen Smagala Carol Smagala Jennifer Luciano Sharon Fuller Roger Johnson Eva Johnson Esther Andrews Gloria Tweedy Ian Jacobsen Bonnie Jacobsen Alice Olla

Lee Central Coast Newspapers — February 9, 2012 — 19

Linda Johansen, Tour Advisor Sharon Price Lana Clark Bill Clark Martha Nedegaard Mike Nedegaard Brad Vidro Debra Vidro Mike Peterson Carol Peterson Susan Williams Heather Bedford Erik Wulff Betty Elings Wells Jeff Paaske Carol Petersen Shayna Rockwell Barbara Breza Bobby Bierig Irene Bierig Karlene Goff Jean Chaney Marjorie Johnson

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 7: World war brings big changes Architecture, tourism lead transformation

20 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

T

he World War II years were doubly difficult for normally fun-loving Solvang.

There was one early bright spot — just 10 days after the dawning of the 1940s, the Solvang grammar school opened on Atterdag Road with four new classrooms, its red roof and white walls reflecting nearby Bethania Lutheran Church.

But things quickly turned grim for Solvang’s Danes.

Their European homeland was occupied by the Germans on April 9, 1940, though the king and parliament were permitted to continue governing for a time.

At home in Solvang these were somber times. There was strict nationwide rationing — of items such as sugar, meat, butter, shoes and gasoline. Tires weren’t available. People bought war bonds and planted vegetables in what were called Victory Gardens. Students collected scrap iron and, with men gone to war, helped on area farms.

Danish Days was canceled as Solvang focused on the war effort.

Women rolled bandages or ran canteens at Camp Cooke, an Army base now the site of Vandenberg Air Force Base. They sent packages and food parcels to Denmark.

In 1943 a crowd showed up at the Veterans Memorial Hall for a concert by two hugely popular Danes, tenor Lauritz Melchior and pianist Victor Borge, to raise money for a Danish Relief Fund.

That year in Denmark, conditions worsened. With Danes rebelling against the

Nazis, martial law was imposed. Parliament was disbanded. Men were imprisoned in concentration camps.

Learning that Jews in the nation were to be arrested, the resistance movement guided Jews to the coast for the perilous boat crossing to neutral Sweden. All but a handful of the country’s 8,000 Jews survived.

Denmark was liberated on May 5, 1945, days before the war in Europe ended for America.

Life in Solvang gradually returned to its normal pace.

Immigration from Denmark resumed. However, Solvang would soon be changed forever.

First, a pair of forwardthinking men transformed the mere idea of a Danish “look” into bricks and mortar.

In 1945, Ferd Sorensen, a Nebraska-born DanishAmerican who came to Solvang in 1933, opened a plumbing, electrical and sheet metal business and built his Danish-themed house, which he called Mollebakken (mill on a hill).

The next year he built the town’s first Danish provincial windmill.

At the same time, Ray Paaske, who had been a B-17 pilot and prisoner of war, returned home from the war.

His father, Termann Paaske, had come to Solvang in 1918 and opened a furniture store and mortuary. Though his father had died in 1942, Paaske continued the older man’s dream of redesigning Solvang in Danish architecture.

With Sorensen’s help, Paaske and his brother Erwin, known as “Youngie,” started building the Danish provincial style Copenhagen Square on Alisal Road at the end of Main See CHANGES / 21

Photos contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

Ray Paaske returned home from World War II with the idea of remodeling Solvang to emphasize its Danish origins.He and his brother Erwin built “Copenhagen Square”on Alisal Road,facing Main Street.In the 1950s, other Solvang buildings were remodeled or built in the same Danish provincial style.

In January 1947,the Saturday Evening Post published a prominent article about the “spotless Danish village that blooms like a rose in California’s charming Santa Ynez Valley.” The enticing article and its stunning photographs started a stream of visitors to Solvang that continues to this day.

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

CHANGES: Continued from page 20 Street. In 1947 Paaske dedicated the building to his late father and a friend, John Frame, with whom Termann Paaske had discussed the idea.

In the 1950s, other Solvang buildings were built or remodeled in the Danish provincial style that became the hallmark of downtown Solvang businesses. Many Solvang streets were given Danish names; Main Street, for example, became Copenhagen Drive.

South of Solvang, the Alisal Guest Ranch opened in 1946, welcoming celebrity visitors.

In town there were more changes.

Solvang’s oldest store, at the corner of Alisal Road and Main Street, long called Nielsen and Petersen, got a new name — Nielsen and Rasmussen, with the

slogan,“We’ve Got It; We’ll Get It; Or It’s Not to be Had.” True to the name of “general store,” it sold everything from feed to paint, shoes, kitchen tools, groceries and gifts.

The Santa Ynez Valley News was sold to two World War II veterans, Karl Jorgensen and Richard Kintzel. Another Army veteran from Camp Cooke, King Merrill, became the newspaper’s editor and served in that role for decades.

At Bethania Lutheran Church, English was now spoken as well as Danish, but not everyone in town was Lutheran. A new Episcopal Church, named St. Mark’s-in-the-Valley, opened after a somewhat itinerant early existence.

Then on Jan. 18, 1947, an article entitled “Little Denmark” in the popular Saturday Evening Post magazine introduced Solvang to the world.

Writer Dean Jennings

wrote a lengthy article about “the obscure little town of Solvang.” His words were paired with Jack Manning’s colorful photographs of a baker and his Danish pastries, Bethania Lutheran Church, Atterdag College, smiling children in festive dress, and dancers in front of an exquisite landscape.

Manning’s photos and Jennings’ word pictures of rollepolse and risengrod whetted appetites and, with Americans traveling again after the war, visitors flocked to Solvang.

Danish Days resumed in 1947, drawing thousands of people — so many in fact that the celebration was briefly canceled because of crowds overwhelming the town.

The spotless little village, as Jennings put it, “blooms like a rose in California’s charming Santa Ynez Valley.”

After the difficult war years, Solvang had returned to health and vitality.

Solvang craftsman Ferd Sorensen started building his Danish-style house (Mollebakken) in the mid-1940s and went on to build the first of four windmills in Solvang.His distinctive wood carvings can still be seen in many of Solvang’s businesses and homes.

Contributed/ Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

Serving Our Valley For Over 100 Years

NIELSEN’S MARKET

608 Alamo Pintado Road, Solvang, CA 93463 • (805) 688-3236

Nielsen’s Market - 1926

Lee Central Coast Newspapers — February 9, 2012 — 21

1911 - 2012

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 8: Danish theme picks up steam Lutheran Home constructed; streets renamed

22 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

B

y the 1950s,with a golden anniversary approaching,Solvang was beginning to look more and more Danish.

It was a transitional time.

After the war years,construction and travel were rebounding.Old ways were disappearing; new ideas emerged.

Spearheaded by men like Ferd Sorensen and Ray Paaske,and with immigrants from Denmark continuing to arrive to open small businesses,the town was awakening to a tourism bonanza.

At first it was gradual,a building here and there while the town still largely remained Old West.

A prominent Danishborn sculptor named Viggo Brandt-Erichsen moved to town and began building a unique home in Solvang, designed after a typical 18th century Danish farm house.

Of Solvang,he said, “When you look for a place, and you find Utopia,then you stop looking,and say, ‘There!’”

Doing much of the work on the house himself,he used rocks from the Santa Ynez River for the founda-

D

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

In this view of Main Street,the Paaske family’s new Copenhagen Square building can be seen in the distance.In 1953,Main Street was renamed Copenhagen Drive. tion.Naming the house “Elverhoy,” meaning Hill of the Elves,after a Danish folk play,he and his family moved into it in 1953.

Starting the same year, Solvang streets were given Danish names.Main Street was renamed Copenhagen Drive.Other streets were given names of cities and landmarks in Denmark.

In 1957 the Solvang Retail Merchant’s Association decided to transform the business district into a Danish village.Sorensen,who had built his famous home,

“Mollebakken,” a decade before,drew up plans.

An anecdote related in Joanne Rife’s book “Where the Light Turns Gold,” a history of the Santa Ynez Valley, credits Jack Griesbauer with sparking the trend.

The owner of a small photography store on Copenhagen Drive — hoping to sell more film — Griesbauer mentioned it to a painter friend,Delbert Jepsen,who suggested painting a store across the street in Danish motif.A one-time artist from Hollywood named Paul

ILL BAKERY M H S I , IN AN & Coffee Shop C Since 1960

.

Serving The Santa Ynez Valley for 52 Years 1682 Copenhagen Drive, Solvang • 688-5805

Kuelgen came up with a Danish design — bindingsvaerk,flowers and dormers — which Jepsen painted.

“It looked like a movie set,” Kuelgen said.

Local businessmen liked it and,Rife wrote,in a short time the entire district looked Danish.

Older buildings were remodeled.Newer buildings were designed in Danish provincial style — with bindingsvaerk (half timbered) walls,simulated thatch and copper roofs,and

dormers.Wooden storks,a symbol of good luck in Denmark,began to appear on roofs along with unique weather vanes.Another windmill was built.

Meanwhile,outside forces were also influencing Solvang.

In 1950 the Cachuma Project was started upriver to dam the Santa Ynez River to provide more water for the thirsty South Coast.Construction crews poured in.

Completed in 1953,Bradbury Dam impounded the waters so that the nearby

river,once the city’s playground,no longer flowed free.Today,Lake Cachuma, with its fishing and camping,is another primary tourism source.

To the west,things were also happening.Vandenberg Air Force Base,the nation’s new spaceport,opened on the site of World War ll’s Camp Cooke.The base thrived,and some base workers came to live in Solvang and Buellton.

More and more people See THEME / 23

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

THEME: Continued from page 22 moved in,not all of them Danes.To accommodate the increasing numbers of tourists,more bakeries and gift shops opened.

While Solvang had never incorporated as a city,a new public agency,the Solvang Municipal Improvement District,was set up in 1951 to carry out many of the town’s governing duties.

But other traditions were changing.Bethania Lutheran Church was down to one Danish service a month.

Up on the hill at Atterdag, once the community’s pride, Viggo Tarnow’s long-standing children’s summer school finally closed its doors,though the old wooden building continued to stand for another two decades.

On its threshold,the Solvang Lutheran Home, today known as Atterdag Village of Solvang,opened

in 1953.

Nielsen’s Market left its association with Rasmussen’s on Copenhagen Drive,and the family built a new supermarket and shopping center east of the town center in 1959.

Talk began of building a hospital.

Danish Days,that hugely popular celebration,became a victim of its own success.

The production was canceled in 1959 and 1960 because of excessive demands on the small community by the large crowds.

Still,exciting things were in the offing,including a visit from 20-year-old Princess Margrethe of Denmark,the country’s future queen,in 1960.

And the city’s Golden Jubilee in the fall of 1961 — with festivities including a torchlight parade,banquet, singing,folk dancing,gymnastic performances,historical parade and aebleskiver — heralded the return of Danish Days.

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

Anew public agency,the Solvang Municipal Improvement District,was set up in 1951 to carry out many of the governing duties for the unincorporated community.

The Solvang Chamber of Commerce Salutes 100 Years of Solvang!

~ The Loper Family ~ Congratulates

John Greenleaf Whittier

Officers and board members of the Solvang Chamber of Commerce for 2012 include, front row from left, Dan Greenwald, John Martino, Co-President Susan Williams, Michael Larner, Brigitte Guehr, Kelly Schreiner, Secretary Carol Lesher Peterson and Treasurer Dan Johnson.

Back row, from left, are Executive Director Linda Smith, Heather Bedford, Claudia Delgado, Vice President Veronica Sandoval, Co-President Lana Clark, Calisse Courtney and Zdena Jiroutova.

Not pictured, Kathelene Williams-Turk.

We are here to serve Solvang and the business community.

Join the Chamber Today!

Contact Linda Smith at 688-0701

on their

Centennial Anniversary!

Loper Funeral Chapel, Ballard Country Church Serving Solvang and the Santa Ynez Valley 40 years!

Lee Central Coast Newspapers — February 9, 2012 — 23

As a small business person, you have no greater leverage than the truth.

Solvang

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 9: Milestones fill half-century Local hospital, outdoor theater and park built

24 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

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s Solvang prepared to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1961, much of the groundwork for the present city had been laid.

All that remained were the finishing touches.

As 1960 dawned,young Danish Princess Margrethe made the first of her two royal visits on June 5,1960,touring Bethania Lutheran Church, the Solvang Lutheran Home and downtown Solvang.

A decade and a half later,she returned as Queen Margrethe of Denmark with her husband Prince Henrik,again touring the church and Lutheran Home and greeting residents on Copenhagen Drive.

Prince Henrik made a return visit June 11,2011,to celebrate Solvang’s centennial and his 77th birthday,expressing gratitude to Solvang residents “who have made a new home without forgetting the old nation of their ancestors.”

In 1961,in typical style,the festive city went all out for its Golden Jubilee.The anniversary event,lasting three days in September,featured parades,dancing,singing,gymnastic performances,a banquet,plenty of aebleskiver and a barbecue.The celebration would be “remembered always,” organizers promised.

The party revived Danish Days,which had not been held the previous two years because of overwhelming crowds in 1958.

Danish Days is still celebrated each September,with music, dancing,parades and food.

Solvang was growing up,as construction and expansion continued.The town got its first traffic signal in 1968.

In 1963,Ray Paaske built his large windmill on Alisal Road, likely the most photographed building in Solvang today.

In 1964 Solvang got its long-hoped-for hospital,

Photos courtesy of Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

The Danish Brotherhood built the Danish-style entrance to Solvang’s Hans Christian Andersen Park,with Johannes Jaeger as the project’s general contractor.In 1962,a large sign,below,was erected near the main entrance to the new hospital that was to be built along Alamo Pintado Road.Pictured are Mrs.Ray Hopman, left,a member of the board of directors of the Hospital Woman’s Auxiliary,and Mrs.Svend (Pat) Olesen,vice president of the Valley Hospital Association. with the opening of the 32bed Santa Ynez Valley Hospital,which has since affiliated with the Santa Barbara-based Cottage Health System.

Cultural events continued to be prominent milestones in the community’s history.

In 1970,Hans Christian Andersen Park opened,the same year the old Atterdag College on the hill,Solvang’s long-ago dream,was demolished.

For the 1971 Danish Days celebration,co-chairman Roger Nielsen,grandson of a pioneer grocer,had an idea — bring back the theater productions that had been such an integral part of the com-

munity’s history.

Working with Donovan Marley,director of the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts based at Hancock College in Santa Maria,organizers built a makeshift stage in Fredensborg Canyon,not far from the old Atterdag Bowl,for a three-night showing of Hamlet by PCPA. The effort was so successful that a group was formed to consider building a permanent outdoor theater to bring PCPA productions to town regularly.

On June 10,1974,ground was broken for a Festival Theater on Second Street.With almost See JUBILEE / 25

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

JUBILEE: Continued from page 24 every tradesperson in the valley working seven days a week on the project,in an incredible eight weeks the theater,in Danish and Elizabethan style, opened for a PCPA production of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Once Upon a Mattress.â&#x20AC;?

Things remained to be done â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there were no permanent seats yet,for example â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but the effort was a huge success.Today,PCPA productions remain a beloved part of the community,drawing visitors from miles around throughout the summer.

Another present-day cultural institution,the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art,opened in 1988.The treasure chest of city history and Danish culture Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art occupies the one-time home of Martha â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pattâ&#x20AC;?Brandt-Erichsen and her dogs are seen in 1956 in front of Elverhoy House,which she donated to become the artists Viggo and Martha â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pattâ&#x20AC;? home of the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art. Brandt-Erichsen.

Other cultural changes confailed,a second effort was ment District elected as Outside of town,handsome tinued in and around the com- but not its own city.Wanting successful in November 1984. Solvangâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first City Council. more local control and freethoroughbreds replaced dairy munity,which as recently as dom from county taxes,civic In 1985,Solvang was incorpo- Willi Campbell became the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cattle,and the last dairy farm 1976 was called by one magafirst mayor and Leo Mathiasen rated as a city with the board of closed.Vineyards sprang up. zine â&#x20AC;&#x153;Californiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shangri-La.â&#x20AC;? leaders began a push for cityhood.After an initial attempt the Solvang Municipal Improve- its first city administrator.

Wineries proliferated.The Solvang was a community

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Chumash Casino opened.

During his time in office, President Reagan made frequent visits to Rancho del Cielo,his Western White House,just up the hill.

A culture of bicycling â&#x20AC;&#x201D; widespread in Denmark and long popular in the rolling hills around Solvang for recreational riders and professional cyclists in training â&#x20AC;&#x201D; helped attract the prestigious Tour of California time trials and thousands of spectators.

Tourists continued to pour in, enjoying the communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hospitality,gift shops,museums,architecture and food.Today Solvang is a major California tourist attraction,drawing more than a million visitors a year.

Some visitors found the areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stunning beauty and relaxed pace appealing,and stayed.The town grew,drawing people of all ethnicities,not just Danes.

In the 2010 U.S.Census,the population was counted at 5,245.Today,only an estimated 10 percent are of Danish heritage,though Solvang remains known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Little Denmark.â&#x20AC;?

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

FARMING: Continued from page 26 been around since time immemorial,they were often work animals.Now the area became renowned for its handsome Arabians and thoroughbreds.Huge breeding facilities appeared.

For several years,the Santa Ynez Valley was known in the racing industry as second only to Kentucky,said Pat Murphy,a Santa Ynez Valley News columnist who is active in the local horse community.

But changes in the tax code in the 1980s,giving fewer benefits to horse ownership, hit the industry hard.At the same time,the Texas oil industry that had helped support the horse market collapsed,according to Dittmer’s research.

In the face of increasing population and costs, the focus on horses declined, although the valley continues to have fine

breeding farms.

Murphy has documented 52 different breeds of horses in the valley,including thoroughbreds,Arabians,Peruvian Pasos,Icelandics,quarter horses and more.

The Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center operated by Dr.Doug Herthel and his staff of veterinarians is internationally known,and trainer Monty Roberts,“the man who listens to horses,” has helped make the valley famous.

Meanwhile,a new era was starting with the planting of wine grapes in 1964 in the Santa Maria Valley.

“There was this buzz going Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art on up north,” said Jim Fiolek, executive director of the The Burchardi Dairy first used a horse-drawn wagon to sell fresh milk and cream door-to-door.

Santa Barbara County Vint- Later,Hermann,left,and Harlan Burchardi drove trucks on the family’s milk route,where ners’Association,about the customers often saw the family dogs riding along on top. industry’s beginnings.

Interest spread.The Betcame a blockbuster.After the Grape acreage in the nizing the wine potential, tencourts,who had operated more followed in the early TV show “60 Minutes” county soared from zero in a dairy on Refugio Road, aired a segment in 1991 on the early 1960s to 6,500 1970s,including the Fireplanted the first commercial stones.In 1971 Richard the benefits of drinking wine acres by 1974,Dittmer said. vineyard in the valley in in moderation,local wine By the mid 1980s,more Sanford started developing a 1969,along with their neigh- vineyard in an old bean field sales shot up by 40 percent in than 9,000 acres had been bors,the Davidges.Recoga month,wrote Dittmer, planted in grapes.Then on Santa Rosa Road.

quoting a wine consultant.

Doctors seconded the “60 Minutes”report,and the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet were also being increasingly advertised.

Wine became American’s drink of choice.Again for the valley,the key was location, location,location.

Enter another factor that Solvang already knew something about — tourism.

Wineries were often set in pretty,pristine settings and the valley became popular for wine-tasting and winetasting tours.

Scores of wineries proliferated in valley towns and along area roadways.

As of 2010,16,900 acres in the county were planted in grapes,Fiolek said.

Eventually,in 2003,the valley’s last dairy,operated

by Arne Jacobsen on Baseline Avenue,shut down.

The change was complete.

In less than a century,the valley’s primary industry had been transformed.

Lee Central Coast Newspapers — February 9, 2012 — 27

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 11: Food makes powerful connection Cuisine includes basic fare and great pastries

28 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

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olvang is more than aebleskiver.

True, the tasty pancake balls are everywhere, but you can walk down most any downtown street and be lured by enticing aromas from restaurants, cafes and bakeries nested among the pretty towers, fanciful gables, windmills and whimsical rooftop storks.

And it’s not just for tourists. It’s the kind of down-home food one has found in Denmark for years.

“It’s similar to the food I grew up with,” said Agnes Larsen, a longtime resident of Solvang who was born and raised in Denmark.

Danes live to eat, an old saying goes.

So be it, but we’re talking about simple fare.

“It’s plain food, not heavily seasoned,” said Paula Greenwald, co-owner of Paula’s Pancake House with her husband Charles and an expert on Danish food.

“Most Danish cooking is very bland.”

Recipes rely on basic ingredients, not added spices.

Sausages, meatballs, herring, liver pate, red cabbage, cheeses, potato salad and vegetables — such as cauliflower or a pea-carrot salad — and much more may be found on local smorgasbords.

Medisterpolse, served everywhere, is a sausage made of ground pork.

In Denmark,“there is loads of pork,” said Greenwald.“There are so many pigs.”

Beef cattle are few, with cattle raised for dairying.

Dairy products such as butter and cheese are popular.

“They eat a lot of cheese,” said Greenwald.“It’s plen-

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

Each December,volunteers make more than 800 lavishly garnished smorrebrod (Danish open-face sandwiches) for guests at the Elverhoj Museum’s Christmas party.Shown with their handiwork in 2009 are Marie Jaeger,Lucille Wulff,Else Lassiter,Edel Schonfeldt,Agnes Larsen,Sonja Cartwright and Mindi Jaeger. tiful in Denmark.”

Larsen loves her cheese.

Along with hard rolls, a daily breakfast regimen, she has Havarti cheese.

“That’s the only kind there is,” she said with a hearty laugh.

In Denmark, before dessert, a cheese course is sometimes served, Greenwald added.

Potatoes are a staple, she noted.“They grow potatoes year-round in Denmark. It has a cool climate.”

“We had a lot of potatoes,” Larsen recalled.“My dad had a farm. We raised our own animals.” When animals were butchered, however, preservation became a problem.“We didn’t have a freezer, so you had to

can.”

“Oh, sure, we had a vegetable garden,” she said.

Vegetables — particularly the root variety — are common both in Denmark and Solvang. There are beets, cabbage, cauliflower, kale,

cucumbers, carrots and parsnips. Pickled cucumbers garnish dishes. Parsley is often used as well.

A typical Danish weekday dinner might be meatballs, potatoes and red cabbage.

“They have gravy with everything,” said Greenwald, adding,“they like strong coffee.”

Danes like to eat dinners at home.

“They eat a lot of fish,” she said. Seafood, typically cod and herring, came from waters surrounding Denmark.

Larsen, growing up in the country, recalled that “the fish man came around once a week.”

The popularity of fish has endured, even in landlocked Solvang. Bowls of various types of herring are served, with herring put on slices of buttered bread.

A unique Danish tradition is smorrebrod, open-faced sandwiches colorfully and artistically arranged on a large plate, looking somewhat like flowers and seemingly too good to eat.

Thin slices of heavily buttered pumpernickel are stacked high with such toppings as liver pate with mushrooms and pickled cucumbers, sliced frikadeller (Danish meatballs) with sweet-sour red cabbage, and slices of ham with peas and carrots.

Seafood — perhaps salmon or tiny shrimp — is typically served on thin slices of crusty white bread.

Twists of lemon may garnish the sandwiches, which are eaten with a knife and fork.

The sandwiches are traditionally accompanied by a small glass of ice-cold schnapps and a beer, said Greenwald.

For all the plain fare of the meals, there is an irresistible dichotomy — the sweet, rich baked goods found in See FOOD / 29

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

FOOD: Continued from page 28 numerous bakeries throughout Solvang. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They have such good bakers here,â&#x20AC;? said Norm Anderson, a longtime Solvang business owner.

There are pastries filled with apricot, blueberry, apple, cherry and cream cheese; pretzel-shaped kringles brimming with tempting almond paste; pumpernickel and other rustic breads; kaffeekages (coffee cakes) and julekages (Christmas coffee cakes).

One theory as to the origin of the pastries is that in the late 19th century, bakers from Vienna went to Copenhagen to find work and introduced the sweet pastries there. They took hold.

Bent Olsen, a third-generation baker originally from Denmark, who has operated a bakery in Solvang for 40 years, specializes in

â&#x20AC;&#x153;kransekage,â&#x20AC;? an almond ring cake used for special occasions.

Cookies are also popular.

In Denmark, Greenwald said, cookies are often served after dessert.

Tubs of little butter cookies are everywhere in Solvang.â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a huge seller,â&#x20AC;? Anderson said.

Larsen fondly remembers home-made sugar and pebbernodder (pepper nut) cookies and other desserts.

Her mother often made apple cake, a traditional desert.â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ris a la Mandeâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; rice pudding â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is a Christmas Eve staple. By custom, an almond is placed in the pudding. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There was a prize if you found the almond,â&#x20AC;? she said. ...â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rice porridge is still comfort food.â&#x20AC;?

While upscale restaurants such as Root 246 are gaining a foothold in Solvang, food is still mainly basic fare. And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wonderful.

Eat your heart out, America.

Contributed/Elverhoj Museum of History and Art

In 1919,H.C.â&#x20AC;&#x153;Butcherâ&#x20AC;?Hansen and his son opened a meat market on Main Street (present-day Copenhagen Drive) that became well known for its Danish sausage.This photo shows,from left,George T.Hansen,Viggo Bruhn and Butcher Hansen.

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SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

Chapter 12: Special year highlights traditions ‘It’s a culture that enjoys celebrations’

30 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

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laedelig Jul! The traditionally cheery Danish greeting for “Merry Christmas”is heard often during the holiday season throughout Solvang.

In 2011,Christmas capped a momentous centennial year marked by the Tour of California bicycle race,a visit from a Danish prince, the 75th celebration of Danish Days and dedication of the city’s Centennial Plaza.

“The centennial is a wonderful opportunity to share history and traditions,” said Esther Jacobsen Bates,executive director of the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art, who grew up in Solvang’s Danish tradition.

“It’s a culture that enjoys celebrations,” she said.

Christmas is perhaps the most deeply rooted tradition of all,enduring in the still strongly Danish community.

“Christmas is a major celElverhoj Museum of History and Art/Ines Labunski Roberts ebration,” said Bates,who celebrates the holiday in her Elverhoj Museum volunteer Inge Jacobsen demonstrates the making of Danish paper Christmas ornaments. own home with the tradian almond tucked inside for rafter in a building under Elverhoj Museum. girl in Denmark. tions she grew up with. one lucky diner who gets a The Danish Sisterhood “We learned to make them construction.The “topping Family members gather prize. holds its long-standing in school when I was 7 or 8,” out”ceremony features the from near and far.The relaThere will presents to Christmas party at Bethania she said. placement of a wreath of tives,including children, open and something set Lutheran Church’s Parish She also makes small evergreens,flowers and ribgrandparents,nieces and heart-shaped paper baskets Hall,with a dinner featuring aside,perhaps,for the misbons on an uppermost nephews,dance around the that people can fill with little roast pork,music and a giant chievous little elf Jule Nisse. beam.

Christmas tree.

Other strong Danish celeA rejsegilde was held in “It wouldn’t be Christmas cookies or candies and hang Christmas tree in the middle brations are milestone anof the room. on the Christmas tree.

2011 as construction neared without it,” she said,with niversaries in which friends “We dance around the Food also bespeaks an end at Centennial Plaza, obvious enthusiasm.“We participate.“Twenty-fifth Christmas in Solvang,a tra- tree and sing traditional just as it was during the hold hands and sing carols songs,” said Elsa Lassiter,the and 50th anniversaries are dition from the Danish building of Atterdag College around the tree.” The carols big deals,” Bates said.“They in 1914.Afterward — these group’s president.“Then homeland. end with a traditional DanSanta comes.” also celebrate round-num“Baking is a big,big are Danes,after all — workish song,“Nu Har Vi Jul Bethania Lutheran ber birthdays — 60 and 70.I ers are honored with food thing,” Bates said.“They Igen”— “Now We Have Church holds as traditional think they throw in number bake for weeks before.” and drink.

Christmas Again.”

75,too.”

Kitchens turn out cookies Danish service with hymns, The Danish Days tradition Trees hold ornaments and the sermon and liturgy in There may be singing of — perhaps brunkager,pebbegan with the city’s 25th sometimes a garland of Danish. the “Skal”song and toasts bernodder or klejner — and birthday celebration in 1936 Danish flags.

Families sit down to with the Scandinavian liquor and continues today.

Elverhoj Museum docent more. sumptuous Christmas Eve akvavit.

Cooks make hundreds of With the closing of the Inge Jacobsen is known for Another Solvang tradition centennial year,city leaders feasts — often stuffed turkey creating Danish paper orna- open-faced sandwiches or goose,and that Christmas is the rejsegilde,celebrating each year for the traditional hope to hold on to the tradiments and paper stars, Eve staple,rice pudding with the raising of the highest Christmas party at the tions while adding new something she learned as a

things in the coming years.

“I hope to retain Solvang’s unique identity and authenticity,” Bates said.

“We’re certainly going to continue our relationship with Denmark,” said Mayor Jim Richardson.

“As for the commercial future of the city,the Economic Development Committee is working to bring in more business,make Solvang a more agreeable place for business,” he added.“We know we need more visitors.We’re not going to get rich on aebleskivers.”

“I think it’ll continue to be a tourist town,” said longtime City Councilman Ken Palmer.

“I don’t see any controversies except for the water issues.I don’t see much change at all.They’ll retain the traditions,believe me,” he said.

“Everybody feels so passionately about how lucky we are,” said Willi Campbell, Solvang’s first mayor and a longtime active community member.“I don’t think it’s anything we take for granted.The valley,all the communities,offer something to the mix.The layers of history,the Indian period,the mission,the Yankee pioneers and Danish and others who came afterward — it’s all special.

“This time of year (at the holidays),the people from the north begin to migrate back,” she said.“There’s sort of a communal homecoming of the people who know the valley and appreciate it.

There’s a big sigh — ‘I’m back.’

“I think we’ll fight for that.We’re not talking about the past.It’s the future.People really feel strongly about the community,the political things that are happening.

We’re a contentious bunch, and that’s all right.

“I think we’ll survive and shine,” she concluded.“Let’s keep the party going.”

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL: 1911-2011

A letter to residents 50 years in the future T

ioned to others. o the resiAs civic leaders dents of we’ve worked to Solvang and keep the core of the Santa Ynez ValSolvang with an ley: early Danish or We’re at the end Northern European of Solvang’s cenflavor.Is it the tennial celebration same,or has year.Some of you Solvang followed who read this will Denmark and behave been present at Richardson come a modern city the placing of this similar to today’s time capsule on January 6,2012.We who have Copenhagen?

For some of us the rural gone on before you are praying that the United States has en- character of the Santa Ynez Valley is what drew us to this tered worldwide peace and bit of paradise.Has it stayed that the economies of the United States and Solvang are rural or has it morphed into another suburb of the Los Anprospering. geles megalopolis,as we As you look through the contents of this capsule you’ll feared? If it has stayed rural, please thank the civic leaders see life as we’ve lived it,the celebrations we’ve had and the who followed us.

The main issue of our day is way the city looked in 2011. water,and whether we are These objects will bring back memories for some of you and getting what we need at a reasonable price.Economic demay look quaint or old-fash-

Leah Thompson/Staff

Solvang City Manager Brad Vidro and City Councilwoman Tara Wood bury a time capsule filled with Solvang mementos, including this letter by the mayor,at Centennial Plaza. velopment has been an ongoing concern.Has the city developed a strong economic viability? Is tourism our only industry — retail shops,restaurants and hotels — or have we

developed other industries?

At the time I wrote this letter, we were looking at culinary schools,medically related businesses and other clean industries.

Are you feeling the impacts of the space business at Vandenberg Air Force Base,or the casino just east of Solvang?

Mission Drive was becoming clogged with automobile traffic: Has a successful highway bypass been built around the city without affecting your way of life?

Has the beauty of the Valley survived? The open fields,the great oaks,the horse farms, cattle ranches and vineyards.

Has the annual trek of the Rancheros Visitadores continued each May,along with the Fourth of July parade that draws visitors from across the nation to see a small-town parade? What about Danish Days with its candlelight parade,aebleskiver breakfasts and annual parade through town,and Julefest with the Christmas tree lighting and parade featuring Santa Claus? These were some of

our favorite celebrations.Have they survived?

The Elverhoj Museum is a window to our past,and we’re hoping it is a window to yours also.It is important to keep the Danish connection alive; these people were the pioneers who made our city what it is today.

In 2009 the city leased an area known as lot 72 to the state parks system for 55 years: Have their dreams of developing a park honoring the Native Americans,the early settlers, and Mission Santa Ines’former grist mill and fulling mill been fulfilled?

I could go on about our hopes and dreams for the future of our beautiful city,but we’ll leave it in the hands of our children,who will be your parents and grandparents.We pray they’ve been successful.

Jim Richardson Mayor of Solvang January 6,2012

Congratulations Solvang on Your 100th Anniversary

From left to right back row: Sandy Kurz, Claudia Delgado, Pamela Dozois, Dave Bemis, Diane Hernandez. Front row: Julian Ramos, Scott Maher

Lee Central Coast Newspapers — February 9, 2012 — 31

Your Hometown Newspaper Since 1925

From ‘sunny field’and dairy farms, a city grows and thrives

SOLVANG CENTENNIAL 1911-2011

32 — February 9, 2012 — Lee Central Coast Newspapers

El Rancho Congratulates Solvang on its 100th Year Birthday!

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A SPECIAL PUBLICATION FROM THE SANTA YNEZ VALLEY NEWS