Lars and Grethe Anderson traveled to Milwaukee by lake steamer and walked to Waupun, 50 miles to the northeast. Waupun was a common destination for Norwegian immigrants. They stayed three years, working, saving money, and getting used to new customs and a new language. In the fall of 1856, carrying all their belongings and Lars and Grethe’s one-year-old son Carl, they traveled by foot and covered wagon from Waupun to Eau Claire, a journey of more than 150 miles.

They wintered on the banks of the Chippewa River and lived the next year in what is now the town of Pleasant Valley. The following spring, Lars and Grethe moved with Jens, and a number of friends from the old country, to Chippewa Falls township, where they would all live out their lives.

“[Waupun was] a stopping for all [Norwegian] immigrants bound for the West, as a great number of old settlers were residents of that city at one time.”
— Mrs. Ole Tilleson, who came to Elk Mound from Waupun in 1862, quoted in the Eau Claire Leader, November 12, 1911

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