North Dakota is one of the most rural and agricultural states in America. It is also the state with the highest percentage of Norwegian-Americans. Nearly 30% of the population claim ethnic roots in Norway.

Norwegian Footprints was created on the prairies of North Dakota by photographer Jan Johannessen and journalist Espen A. Hansen. Through photographs taken and texts written during seven visits to the state, the two have created a snapshot of Norwegian Americans in North Dakota at the turn of the century.

Northwest North Dakota has been their special area of interest. This area was the last space in America to be settled by first- and second-generation European immigrants, many of them Norwegian. Indeed, some of the towns in that corner of the state are nearly 90 percent Norwegian. They created an immigrant culture in their new home, with its own social fabric and ethics, ethnic food and traditions, rules of behavior and ways of looking at the outside world, a culture based on strict moral values brought over from the Old Country.

It is a culture that may now be on the verge of extinction, The 2000 US Census indicates that many of the North Dakota counties with the highest number of Norwegian-Americans are also the counties with the highest out migration, especially of young people. Thus, the part of America that was the last to be settled by Europeans is now among the first parts to empty.

Through their photographs and texts, the two authors describe the everyday life of people with Norwegian roots living on the northern plains. They wish to understand how that society was created and how it developed its own character. Finally, Norwegian Footprints captures the cultural spirit and landscape of Norwegian-American families in North Dakota, from the moment the settlers left Norway until the coming of the twenty-first century; a spirit and landscape that now may be passing into oblivion.

The project has been funded by Jan Johannessen, Espen Arnold Hansen, UND Nordic Initiative and grants from the Arts Council Norway and the Norse Federation. The book was released in January 2005 in both Norway and the US.