Rootshús - Ground is Broken, Voices Rise in Celebration
- Icelandic Roots
- 6 hours ago
- 6 min read
Becky Byerly-Adams and Rob Olason
The Deuce of August 2026 festivities in Mountain, North Dakota were host to a unique experience. The Rootshús groundbreaking ceremony took place and was honoured with a tribute of a song written for the occasion.
The Groundbreakding for Rootshús by Becky Byerly-Adams
August 1 was a beautiful, sunny day; perfect weather for the groundbreaking ceremony for the Icelandic Rootshús in Mountain, North Dakota.
The Rootshús represents the culmination of a shared vision that has been taking shape for generations. Across Iceland, Canada, and the United States, individuals have collected family histories, preserved photographs and books, documented stories, and worked to ensure that the experiences of those who came before us would not be forgotten.
In 2013, many of these efforts came together through Icelandic Roots, an organization founded to unite people around a common goal: preserving and sharing Icelandic heritage for generations to come.
Today, Icelandic Roots connects individuals and families across borders, preserves historical resources, and helps descendants around the world discover the people and places that shaped their stories. The Icelandic Rootshús is the next chapter in that journey: a permanent, physical home for the collections, memories, and relationships built by more than 80 volunteers and thousands of descendants connected across three nations.
The Rootshús will be a modern interpretive and educational center located across the street from the historic Vikur Church and Cemetery. It will be a place where the Icelandic story can be told, remembered, explored, and carried forward.
The center will provide space for gatherings and educational programming focused on preserving and promoting Icelandic heritage, history, and culture. In addition to genealogy resources, the Rootshús will house a library and archives, a saga hall, an emigration trail, and a children’s corner. It will create opportunities for visitors of all ages to connect with their heritage.
The significance of the day was captured beautifully in the commemorative program by Sunna Olafson Furstenau, Founder and President of Icelandic Roots:
“One hundred forty-eight years ago, the first Icelandic settlers arrived in northeast Dakota Territory. Their courage, perseverance, and dreams shaped the communities we know today.
"Now, on the homestead of Reverend Páll Þorláksson, we begin the next chapter. The Icelandic Rootshús will be a permanent home for the stories, records, photographs, books, and memories that connect us to our ancestors and to one another.
"This building belongs to all who have helped preserve our shared heritage - and to those who will discover it in the generations ahead. Thank you for being part of this historic day.”
Dori Steinolfson Heck served as Master of Ceremonies. The program opened with a blessing from Pastor Jessica Merchant, followed by greetings from Iceland by Ambassador Svanhildur Hólm Válsdóttir and community remarks from Loretta Thorfinnson Bernhoft, Honorary Consul of Iceland to Dakota.
One particularly meaningful moment came when Steingrimur “Stoney” Steinolfson presented Sunna with a commemorative U.S.–Iceland Leif Erikson millennium coin set. In thanking Sunna for being an Icelandic “culture carrier,” he connected the coin’s history to the significance of the Rootshús itself.
The coin set commemorates Leif Erikson’s voyage to North America 1,000 years earlier. For Steingrimur, it also symbolized the Rootshús as a new vessel; one that will carry Icelandic history, culture, and connection across generations and between Iceland and its descendants in the West.
After Sunna offered a few words of thanks, the shovel ceremony began.
Volunteers and donors who had believed in the vision from the beginning were invited to take up the shovels and turn the soil. In that simple act, something profound happened: a dream that had been nurtured by generations became tangible. The Rootshús was no longer simply an idea or a vision for the future. It had begun.
The ceremony concluded with a moving musical tribute. A group of visiting Icelanders, led by Arinbjörn Vilhjálmsson and Hey Tours, performed “The Rootshús Song,” written in honor of the new interpretive center. Arinbjörn’s lyrics draw from the poetry of K.N. Július and are set to a melody by Baggalútur.
It was a fitting close to a day centered on memory, connection, and the future. From the first Icelandic settlers who arrived in Dakota Territory to the volunteers and descendants who gathered in Mountain nearly 150 years later, the story continues.
Those Stories Shall be Kept in This House by Rob Olason
At the groundbreaking of the Icelandic Rootshús, speeches were made by dignitaries from the U.S. and from Iceland to celebrate the event. The speakers were putting into words the importance of this event. They were placing the meaning of the Icelandic Rootshús into the historic context of the dialog between Western Icelanders and Icelanders that is still going strong after a century and a half since the first Icelandic settlers made roots in North America.
The dialog between these two Icelandic branches of the same tree was also told in song by a group of Icelanders led by “Hey Iceland” tour guide, Arinbjörn Vilhjálmsson. As the tour group assembled before the crowd, Arinbjörn described themselves as “a group of normal Icelanders” who wanted to fulfill the dream of attending the Mountain and Gimli Icelandic celebrations at least once in their lives.
He then read the lyrics of the song in English and Icelandic and said it was set to the melody of North Dakota Icelandic settlement-era poet Káinn’s “Ævintýr á gönguför,” which he said was very well-known in Iceland. Spotify users can find the melody online and listen to an archive recording of the original version.
As he recited the words, Arinbjörn’s lyrics paid tribute to the vision of the Icelandic Rootshús. He said this new Western Icelandic landmark will hold the story of the Icelandic settlers who journeyed here and built a new life in North America. And he offered the hope that the Icelandic Rootshús will “strengthen the roots/that nourish the maples of our national culture/so that Icelanders in the West sometimes turn their thoughts/home across the wide oceans to their beloved ancestral land.”
This group of “normal Icelanders” made the journey from their homeland to see for themselves the land that their ancestral cousins found. To walk its sunbaked ground on a warm summer’s day. To stand before the descendants of their ancestors, and sing a story of praise, using an old familiar tune that grew from this new land. All joined together to welcome this new home into existence in the American countryside. A year from now this Icelandic Rootshús will open its doors to our globally dispersed family of cousins and “our heritage shall be kept, and this building (will) connect us together.”
RÓTAHÚSSÖNGUR with Lyrics by Arinbjörn Vilhjálmsson.
To watch the video of the introduction and song, click here: https://youtu.be/j8BL3mC4Zj8?si=CReZJq3GgufZqe-n
Here are the lyrics of the song the group shared that day:
RÓTAHÚSSÖNGUR
1 ágúst 2026 (Lag: Úr fimmtíu senta glasinu...)
Hjá Víkurkirkju í Mountain-bæ mun rísa Róta-hús
svo reisulegt í byggðarinnar hjarta.
Við undirbúning lagði á plóginn fjölmörg höndin fús
og framtíð á það vissulega bjarta.
Og setur þetta á hlutverk það að hlúa að rótum þeim
sem hlyni okkar þjóðmenningar næra
svo Íslendingar vestra þeir hugsi stundum heim
um höfin breið til ættarlandsins kæra.
Og minningin skal lifa um þau sem hérna byggðu bú
og breyttu villtri steppu í héröð fögur
og höfðu á Ameríku í hjarta sínu trú,
í húsi þessu geyma skal þær sögur.
Í bandarísku sveitinni skal geyma okkar arf
og okkur saman tengir bygging þessi.
“Já Róta-húsið ágætt og allt þess merka starf
um alla framtíð landvættirnar blessi”
ROOTS-HÚS SONG
August 1st 2026 (Google translation from Icelandic)
At Víkur-church in Mountain-town, a Rootshús will rise
so majestically in the heart of the settlement.
During the preparation, many hands willingly put in the plow
and its future is certainly bright.
And the task of the house is to strengthen the roots
that nourish the maples of our national culture
so that Icelanders in the West sometimes turn their thoughts
home across the wide oceans to their beloved ancestral land.
Here the memory shall live of those who once built farms
and turned the wild steppe into beautiful districts
and had faith in America in their hearts,
those stories shall be kept in this house.
In the American countryside, our heritage shall be kept
and this building connects us together. “Yes, the good Rootshús and all its significant work Iceland’s protectors bless forever.”
