Norway to Washougal: An Unusual History Book, Inspired by Homesteaders Anna and Engel Engelsen

Just how far is it from Norway to Washougal, Washington? That depends on when and how you traveled. From Norway to New York took four months by sailboat and two months by steamship. From the American east to the west coast took four months to a year by horse or oxen pulled wagons. Travel from the east to the west took days to weeks on early American trains after the first transcontinental train started in 1869. This book starts at the beginning of everyone’s genetics, with a brief story of the first modern humans. It moves briefly through Norwegian’s history from the Ice Age to the 1800s. Significant people and events mark American history from the 1600s to the early 1900s As the book travels to the Pacific Northwest, the reader meets fur trappers, Native Americans, American pioneers, and European settlers. Along the way, there are explorers, British forts, and struggles over land ownership, and battles. As the book arrives in the Pacific Northwest, geology tells the story. Washington and Oregon Territories form from donation land claims, homesteads, river transportation, natural disasters, and the birth of small towns.
The farming life in the mid to late 1800s, the first settlements north of the Columbia River in Washington, and the growth of towns then cities are told through the families who lived there.
A history timeline adds a correlation between Norwegian and American history and the American presidents.
Paul and the Roman empire, Hebrew history, Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, early American missionaries show religious faith in history. Finally, the book is the story of a deep desire to honor one’s family, leave a legacy, and the author’s mission to grow in her Christian faith.