Olaf Skye

Last spring a new family history book was featured at the Waupaca Public Library. My cousin had a copy and ultimately in June we met the author's daughter and she gifted me my own copy.

Olaf Skye came from Norway in the 1890s to Scandinavia, Wisconsin. He and his family interacted with my Norwegian ancestors in that area.

Most exciting, Olaf went to the Klondike with a small group of Scandinavia residents. Part of the book describes his travels there and the search for gold. Olaf and some of his companions wrote letters home that tell about their mostly unsuccessful search for riches. His daughter saved all of their correspondence and this became the basis of the book. 

After returning to Wisconsin, Olaf again became a "wanderer." In 1906 he traveled to Saskatchewan and made a land claim near Dinsmore. Each year he spent six months on his land in Canada and returned to Wisconsin in late November. Again, he corresponded regularly with his daughter describing his life on the prairie. He also became a Canadian citizen before returning to spend the rest of his life in Waupaca County, Wisconsin.

We had two presentations last year: one about an ancestor who went to the Klondike for the gold rush, and another about a grandmother who homesteaded on the Canadian prairie. I would be happy to lend the book to anyone who is interested in either of these portions of Canadian history.