Muskego Settlement

Overview

A colony that fever emptied

In 1839 a party of emigrants from Telemark, led by John Nielsen Luraas, claimed 640 acres in what is now Waukesha County. The next year Søren Bache and Johannes Johannsen bought land just south, at Wind Lake in Racine County, and Even Heg arrived with a party from the Drammen district. The colony that grew across the county line became one of the first Norwegian settlements in the United States and, for a few years, a gateway for the emigrants who came after.

It punched above its size. Heg's barn sheltered hundreds of newcomers and held the first services. Claus Clausen came as pastor in 1843, and the congregation built a church on land Heg gave. Johannsen's Muskego Manifesto of 1845 answered Norway's campaign against emigration, and Reymert, Heg and Bache started Nordlyset, the first Norwegian-language newspaper in the country. The ground was low and wet, though. Malaria and ague were constant, and cholera struck in 1849 and again in 1851. Families moved on, mostly to other parts of southern Wisconsin, and the original settlement was abandoned. The 1980 National Register nomination calls it short-lived.

The church hill is the place to go. A brick church of 1869 stands where the log church stood until 1904, when it was taken apart and rebuilt in St. Paul, Minnesota. The graves of the first settlers, Col. Hans Christian Heg among them, run down the hill to Heg Park Road. Across the road, Heg Memorial Park has kept an 1837 log cabin and a house Elling Eielsen lived in since 1928 and 1933, and the state's Old Muskego marker stands at the foot of the hill. Today the land around it is farm fields and houses, so nobody should expect a ghost town of empty buildings.

Timeline

From Telemark to the church hill

1. 1839John Nielsen Luraas leads a party of emigrants from Telemark, Norway, to Wisconsin. They claim 640 acres in what is now Waukesha County. Elling Eielsen, the lay preacher, emigrates the same year by Wikipedia's account and spends time at Muskego; the 1980 National Register nomination says he came to the settlement in 1840.
2. 1840Søren Bache and Johannes Johannsen buy land just south, at Wind Lake in Racine County, so the colony straddles the county line. Even Heg, a former innkeeper from Lier, brings a party from the Drammen district, his son Hans Christian among them.
3. 1843Even Heg's barn, the social and religious center of the colony, serves as the first American home for hundreds of newcomers. Claus Lauritz Clausen arrives as pastor and the congregation builds its church on land Heg gave.
4. 1844The church is dedicated, by the caption in Rasmus B. Anderson's 1896 history. The National Register nomination for Heg Park calls it the first Norwegian Lutheran church built in America and dates it to 1843.
5. 1845Johannsen's open letter answering Norway's campaign against emigration, the Muskego Manifesto, appears in the Christiania paper Morgenbladet on April 1.
6. 1847James DeNoon Reymert, Heg and Bache start Nordlyset, the first Norwegian-language newspaper in the United States; the National Register nomination says Heg talked Bache into paying for it in 1847. It is sold and moved to Racine in 1850.
7. 1848The town of Norway is organized in Racine County.
8. 1849–1851Cholera strikes at least twice, in 1849 and 1851, on top of the malaria and ague of the low, wet ground. Settlers move away, mostly to other parts of southern Wisconsin, and the original settlement is abandoned.
9. 1850The town of Norway still counts more than 750 people, 404 of them born in Norway. Even Heg dies.
10. Sep 20, 1863Col. Hans Christian Heg of the 15th Wisconsin dies of wounds at Chickamauga. He is buried in the churchyard on the hill.
11. 1869A brick church replaces the log church on the same hilltop.
12. 1904The old church is taken apart, moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, and rebuilt at the United Church Seminary, now Luther Seminary. Wikipedia credits the historian Hjalmar Holand with the move.
13. 1925–1933Heg Memorial Park is planned across the road from the church; it opens in 1928 as Racine County's first county park. An 1837 log cabin from the Bendickson farm is moved in that year, and a house Elling Eielsen lived in follows in 1933.
14. 1963The Wisconsin Historical Society puts up the Old Muskego marker, state marker 129, at the foot of the church hill.
15. 1975–1980The old church in St. Paul joins the National Register on May 12, 1975; the church, cabin and Eielsen house at Heg Park follow on July 17, 1980.
16. Oct 2026Photos of the marker and of Heg's grave, taken on October 17, 2026, are posted to Wikimedia Commons.

What's left

A church hill and a county park

The 1980 National Register nomination calls the church and the park's two old buildings virtually the only reminders of the settlement years. The church of 1869 is brick, with a clapboard steeple that replaced the stone original in 1921. Around it are the graves of the first settlers, about 150 marked in 1980 and many more unmarked, running to the edge of the hill. Heg's own stone, an obelisk carved with a flag and a Masonic emblem, stands among them.

In Heg Park, the log cabin was built in 1837 and stood on the Halvor Bendickson farm in the settlement until it was moved in 1928. The Eielsen house is the one sources disagree about. A sign at the park dates it to 1847, but the nomination says no document supports that date. The nomination's first text has it moved from Racine County; its revised description of July 1980 says it came from Jefferson Prairie in Rock County, where Eielsen preached after leaving Muskego. The log church the settlers built is not here at all. It has stood in St. Paul since 1904.

The old maps below show the setting. The 1891 Muskego sheet shows marsh, a road over the hill, Waubeesee Lake to the north and Wind Lake to the northeast. By 1901 the same sheet labels the cluster of buildings on the church hill Wind Lake and calls the lake to the north Minister Lake, and the 1959 Waterford sheet marks the church, Heg Memorial Park and Colonel Heg School there. On the 1980 map the name Wind Lake has moved north to the village on the lake shore.

• Norway Lutheran Church (1869)
• Churchyard with the settlers' graves and Col. Heg's grave
• Bendickson log cabin (1837, moved 1928)
• Eielsen house (moved 1933)
• Old Muskego marker (1963)
• Original log church: in St. Paul, Minnesota, since 1904

Historic maps

Muskego Settlement on USGS maps, 1891–1980

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18911:62,50019011:62,50019591:24,00019801:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Waterford is the nearest town, about 15 minutes away. From Milwaukee the route runs down I-43 and out Loomis Road (WI 36). Both routes end on Heg Park Road at the church hill. Our map point is the church and the marker; Wikipedia's coordinates for the settlement fall about 3.5 miles southwest, south of Waterford, where no source we read places it.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Muskego Settlement in photos

The 1837 Bendickson log cabin, moved to Heg Park in 1928, September 2013Norway Lutheran Church (1869) and the churchyard, February 2008The log church dedicated in 1844, as drawn in an 1896 historyThe Eielsen house, moved to Heg Park in 1933, September 2013Col. Hans C. Heg's grave, October 2026

Visitor reports

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Nearby

Other sites near Muskego Settlement

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Wisconsin index.

• Denoon2.8 mi N · Waukesha
• Dodges Corners5.3 mi NW · Waukesha
• Raymond Center8.0 mi E · Racine
• Root Creek15.0 mi NE · Milwaukee
• Brookfield Center18.6 mi N · Waukesha
• Aurora21.1 mi SE · Kenosha
• Stonehaven51.1 mi N · Ozaukee
• Clason Prairie52.3 mi NW · Dodge

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Muskego Settlement, Wisconsin", retrieved October 2026: Luraas and the Telemark party of 1839, the 640 acres in Waukesha County, Bache and Johannsen in Racine County in 1840, the Muskego Manifesto, Heg's barn, Clausen, Eielsen, Reymert and Nordlyset, malaria and the cholera of 1849 and 1851, the abandonment, the church's move in 1904 and the 1963 marker. Its coordinates are not used (see directions).
2. National Register nomination, "Norwegian Buildings at Heg Park", Terry L. Shoptaugh, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, December 1979, revised July 1980, listed July 17, 1980: the short-lived Muskego community, Bache's land at Wind Lake, Heg's leadership and barn, the 1843 church and its 1869 successor, the 1921 steeple, the town of Norway in 1848 and 1850, the park of 1925 to 1928, the Bendickson cabin and Eielsen house, about 150 graves.
3. Wikipedia, "Norway Lutheran Church" (the Old Muskego Church), retrieved October 2026: the land given by Even Heg, 25 years of use, the 1869 replacement, the 1904 move to St. Paul led by Hjalmar Holand, the National Register listing of May 12, 1975.
4. Wikipedia, "Hans Christian Heg", retrieved October 2026: the family's arrival in 1840, Even Heg's death in 1850, Heg's death at Chickamauga and burial at Norway Lutheran Church Cemetery.
5. Racine County, "Colonel Heg Memorial Park", read October 20, 2026: 6300 Heg Park Road, 20 acres, shelters and restrooms, and the Norway Historical Society's museum and buildings at 6419 Heg Park Road. No hours given.
6. Paul R. Burley, "Old Muskego Historical Marker" and "Colonel Hans C. Heg Grave Marker", Wikimedia Commons, photographed October 17, 2026: the marker's number, date and place at Norway Hill Road and Heg Park Road, and its camera location, used for our map point.
7. Rasmus B. Anderson, The First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration (1896), via Wikimedia Commons: the drawing of the church and its caption dating the dedication to 1844.
8. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Wisconsin", retrieved October 2026: lists Muskego Settlement in Racine County.
9. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited below each one. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Historic maps: USGS. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The 1837 Bendickson log cabin, moved to Heg Park in 1928, September 2013: Vintagepix, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Norway Lutheran Church (1869) and the churchyard, February 2008: William Garrett, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• The log church dedicated in 1844, as drawn in an 1896 history: Unnamed artist, in Rasmus B. Anderson, The First Chapter of Norwegian Immigration, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The Eielsen house, moved to Heg Park in 1933, September 2013: Vintagepix, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Col. Hans C. Heg's grave, October 2026: Prburley, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Muskego 1891, 1:62,500; Muskego 1901, 1:62,500; Waterford 1959, 1:24,000; Lake Geneva 1980, 1:100,000.