Maine's Swedish Colony, July 23, 1870

In 1931-1932 a group of young men gathered at Aaron Anderson’s. His place was in the Bangor Aroostook section of New Sweden. These young men wanted to form a ski club. Back then they did not have much money to do things like that because that was during the Depression and there were not many jobs or recreational things.

Some of the people that wanted to form the club were Evald Anderson, Buck Ostlund, Harold Bondeson, George Peterson, Edmund Anderson, Earl Pearson, Alden Anderson, Ernest Anderson, and Roland Anderson.

The club wanted to be known as a regular club but it soon became known as the New Sweden Athletic Club or NSAC. Later on they did not just have ski teams but hockey, boys and girls basketball, gymnastic and track teams. Even thought they had other sports, the winter ones came out on the top.

The meetings were once every month and every month you had monthly dues that you had to pay. The dues did not cost much now, but then 10 cents was a lot of money. At some of the meetings they had Swedish dancing, games, and refreshments. Anyone was allowed to come to the meetings.

Then something good happened. A local minister said that there was going to be evil that comes from NSAC. To show that nothing was going to happen they did not allow any alcohol or any people who had alcohol into the club. Some of the members that had joined got kicked out because they used to drink and anybody who tried to get in that drank would not be able to join. The club was very strict about these rules.

In the club there were also older people. They helped raise money for the club and acted as coaches and advisors. In 1933 they started to sponsor a Winter Carnival to help them raise money. They crowned a King and Queen, put on ski races, hockey tournaments, and on Pierson (or Ringdall) Hill they made the biggest ski jump.

New Sweden has a long history of cross country skiing and is known as the birthplace of nordic skiing in America. Skiing was brought by the Swedes when they settled the Swedish Colony. Children used Swedish snowshoes which are also known as “skidor” (long and narrow skis). Children had to learn how to ski at a young age. When you got older and better at skiing you were able to use long skis that were more advanced. Those were made by people in town. The poles were made of mop and or broom handles. The skis were used for playing, running errands, skiing to school and to church.

Every pair of skis had one ski that was longer because the longer side was used for adding balance. Another thing that the loner ski was used for is that it helped going through the big drifts because there were no set trails.

Eventually skis got better. They became flat and skinny skis for cross country and then they had fatter skis so they could jump. The poles were used for speed and for balance. Soon after they made skis that were meant for people based on height and weight. Some of the people who lived in New Sweden and made skis were Henry Anderson, Ernest Jacobson, Carl E. Johanson, and Lars Stadig. These skis can be seen in the local museum.