The Norsk Museum is in the first permanent Norwegian settlement, in LaSalle County around the Fox River, which is now Norway, Illinois. This first pioneer group, called “Sloopers”, was led by early explorer Cleng Peerson. The Sloopers came to America primarily for religious freedom. This group of 52 immigrants was a combination of Quaker and Hauge Lutheran, both outcasts of the time by the State Church.  The museum is in the oldest Norwegian Lutheran Church in America, built by the first Norwegian Lutheran minister in America, Rev. Elling Eielsen (Hauge Synod).