In 1856 a group of 155 Swedish settlers arrived in Illinois after traveling by ship from the town of Ockelbo, Sweden. After only a few years, some of them moved to Nebraska (in the 1860's) under the leadership of real estate agent Lewis Headstrom.

The area they chose to settle in Nebraska reminded them a bit of the farmlands in Sweden. The town of Stromsburg was founded and named after a section of Ockelbo. The Swedish immigrants left a rich heritage which is still evident in the town of Stromsburg, Nebraska.

In 1966 the Nebraska Governor, Frank Morrison, came to Stromsburg to attend the Swedish Festival held there each year. He proclaimed Stromsburg to be the "Swede Capital of Nebraska" and the community continues to claim this title, today.

Stromsburg is located in the east-central part of the state, about 20 miles north of Interstate 80 on U.S. Highway 81 and has a population of a little more than 1200 residents. It lies in Polk County, has an elevation of around 1670 feet above sea level and is surrounded by flat to rolling farm lands.

The town has a hiker-biker trail and nice, clean parks. One of these parks forms the center of the town square and is the focal point of the annual Swedish Festival. The square is lined by small retail shops and businesses on three sides and by the main highway on the fourth. Stromsburg has a quiet, pleasant atmosphere with very little of the problems that plague larger cities.

Stromsburg has a Viking Center but we never saw any actual Norsemen heading out for a weekend of pillaging, plundering and whatever else it is that Vikings do on the weekends. It turns out that the building was converted into a senior center at some point, which probably keeps all that pillaging and plundering stuff to a minimum. The Viking motif is popular in Stromsburg, as are plywood cutouts of horses with (usually) simple paint schemes. They're popular lawn ornaments, especially around the time of the annual Swedish Festival. They are based on a traditional Swedish Dala horse. These were small, handcarved, wooden toys for children and were often painted red, blue, black or white with simple decorations. They are a popular motif in many Swedish communities, both here in the U.S.A. and in Sweden. The horses are always without tails.

We have tried to make this website as informative as possible for visitors interested in Stromsburg and the surrounding area. It is a work in progress, with new features and content planned for the future. Site navigation is, we think, about as intuitive and easy to understand as a website of this kind can be. You shouldn't need to use the BACK and FORWARD buttons on the browser to get around, as we do our best to make sure that you can get to where you want to go, and back to where you were, with just a click or two of the mouse.

We hope that you enjoy your visit to the site and will consider adding Stromsburg to your list of day trip stopping points. It's a nice, little town without all of the big city headaches. It is a short drive from a number of larger communities, with good roads all the way.