Bob Asp was a teacher in Moorhead, MN with Norwegian heritage. In the 1970s, Bob decided he wanted to sail from Lake Superior to Norway on a homemade Viking ship. He spent the next ten years recruiting friends to help him build a ship based on the 800 CE ship Gokstad. His ship, named the Hjemkomst (“homecoming” in Norwegian), is now on display to the public at the Hjemkomst Center in the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County (HCSCC).
Transcript
Welcome to MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds.
Narrator: Bob Asp was just a normal teacher from Moorhead who dreamed of visiting his ancestral homeland of Norway. But Bob...
Marcus Krueger: …didn't wanna buy a plane ticket like everybody else. He wanted to go there in a Viking ship.
Narrator: And not just any Viking ship – Bob wanted to build this Viking ship himself, according to historian Markus Krueger.
Marcus Krueger: It was a crazy idea, but it's fun to be a part of crazy ideas.
Narrator: Everyone who heard about this crazy idea wanted to get involved. Some people cut down local oak trees for wood. Others searched for a place large enough to house the massive vessel…
Marcus Krueger: And they spent the next about 10 years building a Viking ship in a potato warehouse.
Narrator: Bob called the ship the Hjemkomst, which means "homecoming" in Norwegian. The Hjemkomst took her maiden voyage in the Duluth Harbor in August 1980. Unfortunately, Bob Asp died of Leukemia a few months later, but his friends kept Bob's dream alive. Two years after that maiden voyage, a crew of 13 sailed the ship through the Great Lakes, across the Atlantic Ocean to Norway.
Marcus Krueger: You can do anything if you have enough friends, if you invite other people to help.
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