Øiumsdalen, Timber Coulee

Written by Hjalmar R. Holand and

translated into English by Oivind M. Hovde.

Øiumsdalen about 50 years after Iver Øium

dammed up the river and built his sawmill.

Just after brothers Iver and Tjøstul Øium were reunited in Timber Coulee, Iver decided to build one of the first sawmills in the county: There was a stream on his property which he dammed up and thereby got a waterfall. Generally a lot of machinery and an iron wheel are needed when one build a sawmill. Iver didn’t have this and had no money to buy it, but he had great ingenuity. He went out in the woods and with ax and knife carved the whole contrivance out of oak. But he had to buy the saw blade, for that had to be of steel.

This was what one called an up-and-down saw. The saw blade was fastened to a frame which went up and down. Naturally sawing was slow. The saw master could sit on the log and could take it easy during the sawing, or he could run over to the cabin and have a cup of coffee while the saw worked itself through the log. But it was much better than using the hand saw.

Iver was a much better letter writer than Tjøstul, and soon there was a large immigration from Gudbransdal to Timber Coulee. Among these was Isak Dalen, a smith whose wife, Randine, was related to the famous Wise-Knut. There was a spring near the Isak Dalen house and this spring was often covered with a brown liquid. One summer Isak filled a bottle of this liquid which he intended to send to the state laboratory for analysis. But nothing came of that.

During the fall of that year he received a remarkable letter from Wise-Knut, which read about as follows:

“I see you have a bottle of brown water which you intend to have analyzed. But you don’t have to bother with that, because it has no meaning whatever. But if you need coal, it might pay to dig under the large stone slab which lies near the spring in the lower end of Small Coulee. It is, however, surer to try between the birch trees which stand upon the hill below the outlet from the field you have up on the ridge. It will not be worthwhile to spend much money or work searching for coal, for that would not pay.”

Isak Dalen and all his neighbors thought this a most remarkable letter for none of them had mentioned Isak’s bottle, or for that matter talked about the environment there. But Wise-Knut’s letter showed that he saw and knew the terrain as if he lived there himself.

Timer Coulee, the upper end of which belongs to Coon Prairie church, together with the other nearby valleys, is the most pronounced Norwegian area in America. The Norwegian language with the original old Norwegian diction is heard everywhere, and one finds here more of the Norwegian customs, fashions and household things than anywhere in America.

Oiumsdalen sawmill and pond.

The mill shown in this photo was built by Iver Oium in 1891. An earlier mill on the

same site was built by another Mr. Oium in 1855, but was torn down later.

At the busiest times the mill was going constantly day and night.

Here is what I now know about the Oium family.

By Sheri Neprud Ballard 

Tjostel Oium was one of the three recorded children of Amund and Marit Oium. He emigrated to America in 1849. He was one of the first settlers at Coon Prairie. A story is told of Tjostel. He got a piece of land a couple of miles northwest of where the city of Westby was built. Here he dug a hole into the hillside, put a door at the front and a chimney on top and this is where he lived. Back home in North Fron, Norway, relatives waited for word from America from Tjostel. Unfortunately, writing tools were scarce and there didn’t seem to be much to write about. A couple years went by with no word, so younger brother Iver decided to go to America on his own, thinking poor Tjostel had probably perished on the trip to America. Iver made it to America, then found his way to what is now Coon Prairie. He didn’t really like it there, so went northward a few miles and came upon a deep and sheltered valley which he called Timber Coulee, and here he settled, the first white settler in that valley. 

A while later, being nearly out of food, Iver was out hunting along the streams and valleys. He saw smoke in the distance, and thought that surely he must have a neighbor, possibly even a white person. Next day, he decided to meet this neighbor and when he did, he found it was his long lost brother Tjostel.

Iver was a better correspondent than brother Tjostel, and encouraged people back home in Norway to come to America. Soon there was a large immigration from Gudbrandsdal to Timber Coulee as well as Coon Prairie.

Iver had married Marit Jonsdatter Shinne in Norway in 1850. He emigrated to America in 1852. Iver and Marit had eleven children. Soon after settling in Timber Coulee, Iver Oium decided to build one of the first sawmills in the county, as there was a stream on his property. Iver had great ingenuity and managed to dam up the creek, thereby making a waterfall. He had no money to buy machinery to build the sawmill that he wanted, so with ax and knife he carved the whole contrivance out of oak, except for the saw blade, which had to be made of steel.

What an interesting family and yes, their descendants are all my cousins!