Jens Jensen Prairie brings Museum of Danish America full circle

As a stiff north wind buffeted our small group, Jens Jensen pointed to an emerging prairie outside Iowa’s Museum of Danish America. Jensen, owner of Jensen Ecology, oversees reconstruction of the prairie. Both the emerging grassland and his name are symbolic of the museum’s closing circle.

The older Jens Jensen (Danes pronounce it Yens Yensen) left Denmark in 1884 and worked briefly at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, before embarking on a long and respected career in landscape architecture, including designing parks and private properties in Chicago, Michigan and Maine. His legacy is of a towering figure in American Landscape design.

After ducking behind the museum building to escape the howling wind, I asked how the young Jensen is related to the famous designer.

“He was my great-great grandfather, but I’m the first of his descendants to be involved in landscape design,” he said.

Today’s Jens Jensen is stewarding the relatively new Jens Jensen Prairie Landscape Park, named for his ancestor. It’s nestled into the grounds of the Museum of Danish America.

Located in the tiny town of Elk Horn, about 200 miles west of Cedar Rapids, the museum is emerging as a fascinating place for people of all ethnic backgrounds to visit.

“We are the national museum dedicated to the history, art and culture of Denmark in the United States,” said Tova Brandt, executive director of the Museum of Danish America.

Its attractive building on the west side of town features permanent and temporary exhibits that help visitors understand the immigration of Danes to the United States and appreciate the accomplishments of their descendants.

There's a good reason why this national museum is located in a tiny town in Shelby County. Names on nearby mailboxes are Nelsen, Pedersen, Rasmussen and others that commonly end in “-en.” Those names remain common in today’s Copenhagen.

Some 300,000 Danes came to the United States between 1870 and 1930. Many with farm backgrounds moved to western Iowa as land became available. Today, about 5 percent of Americans trace their ancestry to Denmark. Many continue to farm in a band of land stretching from western Iowa into South Dakota. Others have pursued a diverse array of career paths.

Elk Horn’s Lutheran Church donated land for what was first called the Danish Immigrant Museum. Groundbreaking occurred in 1988, and the building opened to the public six years later. In 2013, its board of directors changed the name to the Museum of Danish America.

“This new name reflects the museum’s mission to preserve the history of Danish immigration and celebrate the contributions to American life provided by their descendants,” Brandt said.

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The museum’s interior exhibits focus on many aspects of Danish immigration and accomplishments of their descendants in the arts, science, technology and the American military. It is a first-rate, nationally significant museum that extends beyond the main structure.

Located just north of the museum is the Jens Dixon home, a modest structure built in 1901 by Danish immigrant, preacher and teacher Jens Dixon in Kenmare, North Dakota. In nearby Elk Horn is the Bedstemor’s House. It is operated by the museum, open to the public and on the National Register of Historic Places. Nearby is the Genealogy and Education Center, which offers translation and research services.

Like early German, Norwegian, Czech, Swedish and other immigrants who came to Iowa, the Danes settling in Western Iowa found enormous swaths of tall grass prairie.

Stewarded by Native Americans for thousands of years, the prairie built deep fertile topsoil that was converted to farmland in an astonishingly short time. Although once common, elk had been extirpated by the time Danes arrived. Piles of their antlers remained and gave the town its name.

“The museum wanted modern visitors to experience the tall grass prairie that greeted Danish immigrants in the 1880s, so we began plans to restore this original ecosystem on the museum’s property,” former Museum Executive Director John Mark Nielsen told us several years ago.

The museum is looking toward the future and hired Seelman Landscape Architecture of Cedar Rapids to guide it forward.

“Our firm is developing a master plan that will further enhance the visitor experience by creating inviting spaces, expanding accessibility, celebrating Jens Jensen’s role in developing the prairie style of landscape architecture, restoring biodiversity and ecological stewardship, and attracting new and non-traditional visitors,” said Brett Seelman, founding principal of Seelman Landscape Architecture.

The younger Jens Jensen owns Jensen Ecology and is partnering with Seelman. He focuses on restoring biodiversity in the newly emerging prairie named in honor of his great-great grandfather.

Also located in Elk Horn is the Danish Windmill, operated by a separate nonprofit organization. It is an Iowa Visitor Center and offers tours of an authentic wind-powered mill.

Elk Horn is about eight miles north of Interstate 80, approximately halfway between Des Moines and Omaha, Nebraska. The town is tiny and lacks motels and restaurants, but they are available in nearby Harlan and Atlantic. A pleasant campground about five miles from the museum is at Elk Horn Creek Recreation Area, operated by the Shelby County Conservation Board. Prairie Rose State Park is about 10 miles west. Both offer tent and RV sites.

On our drive to Elk Horn, we over-nighted in our tent at Whiterock Conservancy near Coon Rapids. It’s a delightful, privately owned land conservancy that blends active agriculture with outdoor recreation. It has several campgrounds, with over 40 miles of trails that welcome hikers and mountain bikers, and offers fishing and paddling. The conservancy is located in one of Iowa’s least populated areas, making it outstanding for dark sky viewing.

Whiterock Conservancy was on the way to Elk Horn, and one of several other fascinating places to visit are nearby.

We stopped at the Plow in the Oak site about a mile south of Exira on the west side of Highway 71. It’s owned by the Lauritsen Cattle Company, which welcomes visitors to see a small part of an old plow that sticks out of a huge bur oak tree. The local myth is that young Frank Leffingwell was plowing a field when Union Army soldiers approached. Overcome by patriotism, he joined the Army and left his plow leaning against a young tree. He never returned. Over the years, the oak has gradually enveloped the plow.

Danes settled the Elk Horn area, but just to the north, Germans settled Manning. An amazing Germanic building is the Manning Hausbarn that is open for visitors seasonally. A campground is nearby.

Just to the south and located on Interstate 80 is Atlantic, Iowa, a town noted for its antique shops.