The map shows the village, Tantallon, Hólar was east of the village. Small Icelandic communities were also in and around Spy Hill and Gerald.
The area west of Manitoba was called Northwest Territories before Saskatchewan became a province in 1905. The land in the south eastern regions next to the Manitoba border is somewhat rolling, cut with ravines and flat depressions which explains why explorers did not recommend it for settlements. Immigrants from Norway and Sweden had passed it by, continuing further west until they found the flat prairie where the village of Stockholm now stands. These Nordic immigrants settled the area and some time later, a few Icelanders exploring these parts arrived there. The Icelanders had emigrated to Manitoba in 1887 and, as they were uncertain where to settle, sought advice from Frímann Bjarnason who had emigrated from Akureyri in 1874 and was now better known in Manitoba as Frímann B. Anderson. He had earlier suggested to some of his fellow countrymen in Winnipeg to head west, and now volunteered to lead this small group from Iceland. They prepared for the journey, bought supplies, and started out. Frímann knew of the Scandinavian settlement previously mentioned and suggested they head there. While passing through Brandon, Manitoba, two, young and single men opted to stay there and accept work offered by area farmers until harvesting was over. The others continued westward and soon saw another expedition approaching from the west, led by a Scot named Thomas Douglas. All were taken by surprise when he jumped off his horse, walked straight to Frímann, and gave him a hug. It turned out that while in Ontario several years ago, Frímann had worked for Thomas, and they had remained friends since. The Scot informed them that he had been planning a settlement for his countrymen southeast of the Scandinavian settlement. He encouraged Frímann to head that way before going further west, and he would find his brother, James Moffat, already there. This turned out to be a great advice, they found James in a large, wide valley with a flat prairie in the centre center, extending as far west as they could see. James, who in 1884 had explored this region for an expected influx of immigrants from Scotland, told them that the expected group was smaller than he had been told, so he suggested to the Icelanders to consider the eastern part of the valley. He concluded by saying of all the various ethnic groups heading west into the Northwest Territories, he preferred Icelanders as neighbors.
Qu´Apelle Valley, Tantallon village in the center. Photo: Prairie Towns.
Frímann never brought his countrymen to the Scandinavian settlement around Stockholm. They all liked the valley; the landscape reminded them of Iceland. On September 22, 1887, they decided that this was the place for a new, Icelandic settlement. Three went ahead and selected land that day, namely Guðmundur Thorsteinsson, Sigurður Andrésson, both came west from Ísafjörður, and Jón Ágúst Jónsson from Mýrasýsla. Travelling with them was a government agent, supervising their choices, and making sure the process in land selection was legal in every aspect. It was getting dark when the settlers had to determine which quarter of land was going to be their homestead, which was free land. This was accomplished just before dusk and somewhat questionable as their choices might not have been good quality land. The agent convinced them this could be corrected the following morning. This was unnecessary, all were happy with their choices. The agent left and those remaining went about to looking for a good place for their camp, which was selected on the south side of a hill, which hereafter was named “Ágústhóll” as it was on the land of Jón Ágúst. Here they pitched their tents and slept. A stove they brought along was placed in the clearing of a small forest nearby. On October 11, the two brothers who had worked for farmers near Brandon, Eiríkur and Tryggvi Thorsteinson, also came from Ísafjörður, showed up, but before the Government agent left, others had secured land for them.
In order to start farming, equipment was needed as well as livestock, but these settlers were poor. They therefore decided to borrow from the North West Land Company and the three Thorsteinson brothers and Sigurður Andrésson jointly borrowed an amount of $330.00, each receiving a share of $82.50. In addition, two settlers borrowed together $500.00 for buying a cow and oxen. All had chosen land from the top edge of the valley on the north side, their land then stretching downwards to the center of the valley. The main valley is called Qu´Appelle Valley but smaller ones were given Icelandic names, one was Hjaltadalur another Vatnsdalur. Sigurður Andrésson gave the settlement the name Vatndalsbyggð but when the school was built and given the name Hólar, the name for the settlement was changed to Hólarbyggð.
Tantallon in Qu´Apelle Valley. Photo: Prairie Towns
English version by Thor Group