About

Välkommen till Lindström (Welcome to Lindström)!

Lindström (also spelled Lindstrom) is located in Chisago County, Minnesota, United States, approximately 35 miles northeast of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), 10 miles from the Wisconsin state line, and less than two hours from cities including Duluth and St. Cloud.  U.S. Highway 8 serves as a main route for the community.  When looking at the town from above, it looks like it could be an island due to the surrounding lakes (including South Center Lake, North Center Lake, South Lindstrom Lake, North Lindstrom Lake, and many other smaller lakes). With so many lakes, Lindström is a premier fishing and recreation destination.

Lindström was settled predominantly by Swedish (and a few Norwegian) immigrants and their families.  In 1853, Daniel Lindstrom (pictured below on left) left Sweden in search of a nice piece of land to settle in the United States. Many other Swedish emigrants traveled with Daniel Lindstrom.  Joris Per Anderson, half-brother to Daniel Lindstrom, came in 1850 leading a party from Hassela, Sweden. In the party was Erik Norelius (pictured below on right), whose personal journals in part formed the basis of Vilhelm Moberg’s novels of the Swedish emigration to the United States, The Emigrants. Moberg's novels have two main characters, Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson. The novels depict the hardships Swedish emigrants endured en route to America. If you have taken U.S. Highway 8 from north of Forest Lake to Lindström, you have traveled on the Moberg Trail.  

Lindström was platted and saw the completion of the railroad in 1880.  When the logging industry started to decline in the mid 1880's, entrepreneurs began to move further away from the river and west towards Lindström.  Many took their businesses and sometimes even their buildings with them.  Lindström was then incorporated on July 3, 1894. As of 1900, the city's population was 394.

By 1904, Lindström had a new post office building, cement sidewalks, three newspapers (one was printed in Swedish), municipal waterworks, telephone wires, and began exploring the option of electricity.  By 1910, Lindström's business district and resorts were booming.  Trainloads of visitors were coming to enjoy the lakes and escape the heat of the city, and in 1910 Lindström saw more than 2,500 visitors for its Fourth of July celebration.  The first gas pumps were installed on main street in 1912, and the first automobile garage in town opened in 1914.  As the automobile replaced railroad transportation over the years, the Lindström trestle and railroad depot were replaced with new roadways and buildings- this transition was completed by the late 1950's.  

In the 1963, the Water Carnival that began in 1948 was renamed Karl Oskar Days.  A statue of Karl Oskar and Kristina is located at the west entrance of the city, as a tribute to the early Swedish immigrants whose descendants continue to populate the area. These statues are one of the main attractions for tourists from all over the world who come to Lindström because of its Swedish heritage.  The annual Karl Oskar Days celebration takes place in early to mid-July, and includes such activities as a parade, street dance, kid’s activity zone, vendors and food trucks, car show, fireworks, and more.  

In 1996, the King and Queen of Sweden visited Lindström, and the spelling of the city’s name changed from "Lindstrom" to "Lindström".  The 25 year anniversary of this royal visit was commemorated at the 2021 Karl Oskar Days celebration with the flying of a Swedish flag, which will continue to be flown each year during Karl Oskar Days.

The Story of the "Umlauts"  

It is not known whether or not Daniel Lindstrom used the spelling of "Lindstrom" or "Lindström" before he came to America.  However, many who immigrated to the United States altered their name to be "more American".  In 2021, there were over 25,000 individuals in Sweden with the surname "Lindström", and only around 10 individuals in Sweden with the surname "Lindstrom".  It seems highly probable that Daniel changed his name.  The spelling of the city's name was changed to contain the "ö" in 1996, but it was not made official until April of 2015, when Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton signed an executive order to restore the so-called "umlaut" (¨) over the "o" on the Lindström city limits sign.  However, both the USGS and the U.S. Census Bureau still record the city's name as "Lindstrom".

What many refer to as "umlauts" regarding Lindström's spelling are actually not umlauts at all, as the Swedish language does not utilize umlauts.  Instead, the Swedish alphabet contains 3 additional letters, one of them being the letter "ö" (an "o" with the two dots above).    Actual umlauts are commonly found in German and Hungarian languages, and are used to indicate a different vowel quality rather than being its own letter of the alphabet.  

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