Victor Colson Homestead

The settlement Colson helped begin stayed Swedish. A. T. Andreas's History of the State of Nebraska (1882) found Oakland's people "largely composed of Scandinavians." The town then had four congregations with buildings of their own, two of them Swedish, one Lutheran and one Baptist, and its first preacher had been the Rev. W. E. Axling of the Baptist church in 1875. Since 1989 the Swedish Heritage Center has kept crystal, linens and needlework brought by Swedish pioneers in the former Swedish Covenant Church on North Charde Avenue, and the city calls itself the Swedish capital of Nebraska.

What the plaque says

Victor Colson Homestead In the summer of 1866, John Oak (namesake of Oakland) assisted Swedish immigrant families to take up homesteads here in the Logan Creek Valley. Among the first settlers were Victor Colson and his family. He is said to have broken the first sod in Oakland Precinct in 1867. The miniature stone house and well indicate the site of Colson's original sod house and are made from the original foundation stones of the 14 by 24-foot frame house, built about 1875. Dr. Kelly L. and Marcie Lechtenberg Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blackbird Scenic Overlook — 19 mi
  A pull-off on US-75 at Macy on the Umóⁿhoⁿ reservation, looking over the Missouri valley toward the hill where Wazhiⁿga' sabe, Blackbird, was buried after the smallpox of 1800.

More markers nearby

• Governor Frederick Valdemar Erastus Peterson — 1.1 mi
• The Founding of Oakland — 1.6 mi
• The Logan Creek Site — 3.4 mi
• Lyons — 6.0 mi