Suites began filtering into the Oregon territory with the first wave of white settlers. At first, their numbers grew slowly, but after 1883, when the railroad connected Portland to the national grid, the flow accelerated. By 1910, the Swedes with the second-largest foreign-language immigrant group in the state. The influx diminished by the end of the 1920s, and ever since Swedish immigration to Oregon has been a tiny but steady trickle.

Compiling wide-ranging material--some of it never before translated into English--and none of it ever collected and introduced, Swedish American author Lars Nordstrom invites the reader on a fascinating journey through the Swedish history of the state of Oregon from the late 1800s into the 21st century.