Promise of America Statue

Dedicated in 1995, the Promise of America statue (also known as the Norwegian-American Immigrant Family Monument) was commissioned by the Norwegian-American Immigrant Family Monument Commission of Lake Mills and stands on a section of restored prairie. The statue depicts Norwegian immigrants to the Upper Midwest in the second half of the 19th century, portraying them as both New Americans and American pioneers.

The Promise of America statue is also known as the Norwegian-American Immigrant Family Monument. It stands on a 6-acre restored prairie site east of Lake Mills, Iowa. It honors Norwegian immigration to the northern Great Plains in the late 19th century. The monument celebrates the United States as a melting pot of cultures. At the same time, it represents Norwegian immigrants as white pioneers civilizing the western frontier.

The dedication plaque declares:

Thousands of Norwegian immigrants came to the prairies of the Upper Midwest in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. With strength and determination they founded a great agricultural community.

A perilous journey now behind them, this immigrant family of the 1860's stands together ready to begin a new life. With faith and family to sustain them through the hardships which lie ahead--they go forward to claim the promise of America.

In gratitude to all immigrants to settled on the prairies to long ago, we dedicate this monument.

The statue emphasizes the family's Norwegianness and their experience as immigrants. The 1860s Norwegian immigrant clothing was researched at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah. The men's hats and double-breasted vests and the girl's head covering mark them as from the "old country." Rosemaling on a box held by the mother and the family's trunk celebrate Norwegian folk art traditions. Behind them, a Norwegian flag flies between the US flag and the Iowa state flag. The large steamer trunk that stands between the family and the viewer and the suitcase in the man's hand emphasize their recent arrival from Europe.

The monument also interjects the Norwegian immigrant experience into narratives celebrating white settlement of the West. Carlson’s sculpture features a husband and wife standing behind their two school-aged children. Many pioneer monuments depict a man holding an axe or rifle as they gaze confidently out over newly claimed lands. In contrast, this Norwegian settler father holds a suitcase and stares stoically forward, pondering the new land. His son points excitedly out over the Iowa prairie, leading their family westward as Yankee pioneer sons had done in public monuments for half a century. The mother clings to a treasured rosemaling box and a similarly decorated shipping trunk, emphasizing her as a keeper of Norwegian culture rather than the enthusiastic bearer of white civilization characteristic of 1920s pioneer mothers. Her daughter clasps local wildflowers in her hand like young girls in many pioneer family monuments. Yet her Norwegian-style cap and wide-eyed expression reflect her uncertainty about their new home.

"'Promise of America' marquette [sic] on display at MacNider Museum." Mason City Globe Gazette (Mason City, IA) April 12th, 2001. .

Prescott, Cynthia Culver. Pioneer Mother Monuments: Constructing Cultural Memory. Norman, OK. University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.