Crown Prince Olaf of Norway
visits Stanley with the Princess Martha -June 1939
PRINCE OLAV AND PRINCESS MARTHA WELCOMED HERE (June 1939)
For the first time in history, Stanley was visited Tuesday morning by real royalty in the person of the Crown Prince Olav and Princess Martha of Norway.Â
And the royalty turned out to be a shy young man (age 36) and his gracious and pleasing wife. Aboard a special section of the Empire Builder, the couple came to the rear platform and greeted the huge throng that had gathered to meet them. An embarrassing moment followed when they came from the interior of the observation car, apparently, no spokesman was at hand to make the preliminary introductions. But in a moment, the prince had the situation well in hand and spoke perfect English.Â
He brought greetings from Norway to the many native-born Norwegians residing here. He expressed deep appreciation of the splendid reception he had received through his travels in the Northwest and expressed himself as being proud of the Norwegians who had left their native land and come here to build homes for themselves and their families.
What does a prince look like? Well, he wore a very ordinary dark business suit with a very ordinary shirt and would have passed for an ordinary business or professional man on the streets of any city in the country. The prince struck us as being a very human human being and is probably a very fine fellow.
Princess Martha was very simply attired, tall and slim, and we'd guess that she's a perfect mother for three youngsters back in Norway.
And someday, these young folks will take over the reins of government in Norway and that country will be justly governed. And somehow, after the visit of these two people we have a more neighborly feeling for Norway--seems as if a part of us -just across the ocean. And a lot of other folks here have the same reaction, and maybe that's what Prince Olav and Princess Martha are doing here.
They visited towns across North Dakota. Visiting Stanley speaks to the number of Norwegian immigrants in the area … or maybe their influence. Also Stanley was a stop of the Empire Builder which made it easy to come to the back of the train and speak for a few minutes.
At UND he was awarded an honorary degree.
Less than a year later (April 9, 1940) German invaded Norway and the Norwegian royalty escaped to England.
