Norwegian Settlers Memorial

It is located by the roadside of Illinois Route 71, 9 miles (14 km) northeast of Exit 93 on Interstate 80.

[1] The Memorial celebrates the first arrival in 1834 of a pioneering band of farm-seekers led by the peripatetic ethnic leader Cleng Peerson.

[2] Peerson's vessel, the Restauration, is often credited with bringing the first group of immigrants from Norway to Kendall, New York in 1825.

During the 1840s, the Fox River Settlement frequently became a stopping-off point for Norwegian immigrants who entered America.

[3] [4] [5] The Memorial was dedicated in 1934 to commemorate the initial arrival in the Fox River Valley of the group led by Cleng Peerson.