Summary information
| Repository: | South Peace Regional Archives |
| Title: | Halvor Normark Fonds |
| Reference code: | 0707 |
| Date: | 1956, 2018 (date of creation) |
| Physical description: | 2 pp. textual records
9 photographs |
| Language: | English |
| Language: | Norwegian |
| Dates of creation, revision and deletion: | Originally processed July 2024 – JL Corrections made and processing completed August 2025 – TD |
Administrative history / Biographical sketch
Halvor Normark was born in 1875 in a small community named Bleskestad, located in the township of Suldal which is part of the Rogaland Fylke of Norway. At the age of 16 Halvor left the country and started working on a ship, eventually as the cook. After a few years as a ship’s cook, Halvor left sea life and landed in Montreal in 1895. He then began journeying across North America working different jobs, including for a railroad crew in Colorado and for a dentist in Edmonton for approximately six years.
Halvor then settled in the Grande Prairie area near the Wapiti River. He built a log cabin and worked as a trapper and fur trader, selling to the Hudson’s Bay company post in Edmonton. Living in the South Peace, he made lasting friendships with other trappers and immigrants to the region. Later in life Halvor lived in a small cabin on a property belong to his friend Erik Dalen and continued to make new connections with others like Aagot Skjaveland with whom he shared his personal story and history about the South Peace. Halvor died in October or November of 1960.
Custodial history
The photographs were taken and preserved by Aagot Skjaveland before donation to the archives.
Scope and content
This fonds contains nine photographs related to Halvor Normark, the majority of them taken by Aagot Skjaveland. There is also a brief biography written by Aagot Skjaveland in 2018, and a page of contextual notes about the photographs.
Notes
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title of fonds based on contents.
Accruals
No accruals are expected.
Access points
- Graphic material – photograph (documentary form)
- Textual record (documentary form)
- Family and personal life (subject)
Series descriptions
| Reference code | Title | Dates | Physical description |
| 0707.01 | Item – Laundry Day | August 1956 | 1 photograph : b&w ; 4.5 x 3 in. |
| Scope and content:
Two men stand outside a log cabin with a clothes line full of laundry behind them. Halvor is the man on the left. |
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| 0707.02 | Item – Halvor & Friends | August 1956 | 1 photograph : b&w ; 4.5 x 3 in. |
| Scope and content:
Halvor (right) with two friends in front of a log cabin. There are two captions on the back, in Norwegian and in English. The English caption reads: “Old Halvor with his friend that lived far into the bush south of Grande Prairie.” |
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| 0707.03 | Item – Halvor & Friend | August 1956 | 1 photograph : b&w ; 4.5 x 3 in. |
| Scope and content:
Halvor (left) and a friend in front of a log house. |
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| 0707.04 | Item – Log Cabin | August 1956 | 1 photograph : b&w ; 4.5 x 3 in. |
| Scope and content:
A log cabin surrounded by trees. The caption on the back of the photograph reads, “[?] Halvor Normark’s house that was the first house built close to Grande Prairie, Alberta.” |
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| 0707.05 | Item – Town in Winter | n.d. | 1 photograph : b&w ; 5.5 x 3.5 in. |
| Scope and content:
Grande Prairie in the winter, with a log shack in the foreground. Contextual information accompanying the photographs states that it belonged “to our next door neighbour. He was a very old ‘Finnlender’ who lived in that tiny shack parked there… He would be ousted when they built that new church.” |
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| 0707.06 | Item – Trinity Lutheran Church Building Site | n.d. | 1 photograph : b&w ; 5 x 3.5 in. |
| Scope and content:
Unidentified person standing next to a sign identifying the building site of Trinity Lutheran Church. |
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| 0707.07 | Item – Trinity Lutheran Church | n.d. | 1 photograph : b&w ; 5 x 3.5 in. |
| Scope and content:
Trinity Lutheran Church in the winter. |
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| 0707.08-09 | Item – Farm in Norway | n.d. | 2 photographs : b&w ; 4.5 x 6.5 in. |
| Scope and content:
Copies of two photographs showing the valley in Norway where Halvor was born. Contextual information accompanying the photographs reads as follows: “The one shows the hollow in the mountains called Bleskestad, and the buildings in the middle is where is godfather, Nils Bleskestad, my [Aagot Skjaveland] great grandpa lived. The wee speck of a house up towards the top of that picture is where Halvor was born. The other picture shows that place a bit better.” |
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