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Kimballton showcases Danish heritage at Quasquicentennial
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Community unveils mended Little Mermaid Statue and Park
By Drew Herron
NT Sports Editor
KIMBALLTON— For a community that boasts the highest percentage of people claiming Danish ancestry of anywhere in the country, Saturday’s 125th birthday celebration in Kimballton was celebrated in pertinent fashion.
Kimballton, the most Danish town in the most Danish county per capita of anywhere in the United States, closed down their Quasquicentennial this past weekend, a three-day celebration that featured a spirited parade, street dance, a folk-style burning of the witch at the Mid Summers Eve Festival Saturday night, and the highlight of the weekend; the dedication of the reconditioned Little Mermaid Statue and Park in the center of town.
“It’s a strong representation of our Danish heritage,” town historian Jeanette Lillehoj said Saturday.
Private, locally-raised donations as well as grant money helped pay for the recasting of the weathered statue that was unveiled in Kimballton for the first time in 1977, the artistic product of a pair of then-college students. The statue is a full size replica of that which sits on the edge of the North Sea in Copenhagen, Denmark, one of Europe’s most visited landmarks.
One might wonder why landlocked Kimballton, Iowa would claim fame to a sea creature like the mermaid—mythical as it might be—as the community’s geography finds itself closer to the continental divide than either ocean.
The answer lies in the inhabitant’s tremendous pride in their Danish culture and the statue is an homage to Denmark’s greatest literary figure; Hans Christian Andersen, a nineteenth century author and poet most famous for his fairy tales. Key among them; “Thumbelina,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and of course, “The Little Mermaid,” the driving force of Disney’s 1989 animated film that has grossed almost a quarter of a billion dollars.
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Here, in Southwest Iowa, Kimballton was the last village mapped out in Audubon County, settled in the southwest corner of the region in 1883 and eventually grew to a steady population of approximately 350 people, almost all them Danes seeking a bedroom community from neighboring counties and farms.
“Kimballton really started as a retirement community for those who were done working the farms,” Lillehoj said. “This is where they came to…it was a very vital farming community.”
Even today, by the figures released by United States Census Bureau, 53 percent of Kimballton’s 342 people claim Danish ancestry, followed by another 20 percent German. For further proof, head three miles south on Highway 173 past Elk Horn-Kimballton High School, home of the Danes and Lady Danes.
The culture took such hold in the community that through the 1960s, the Immanuel Lutheran Church, one of two sites in Kimballton on the Nation Registry of Historic Places, held Danish-speaking services until a string of immigrant pastors dried up and those who conducted the services were no longer fluent in the native tongue.
“Denmark has a different way of handling religion, it’s sponsored by the state,” Lillehoj said. “For a long time, they were sending pastors over here on missions.”
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