Westby’s Lefse-Polsa House

By RuthAnn Wilson 

On May 17, 2008, the Lefse-Polsa float once again appeared in the Syttende Mai Parade after nearly 40 years. The float this year was dedicated to Ella Anderson, one of the first board members of Syttende Mai. Ella was a jovial lady with a special sense of humor, an active promoter of community events. In the 1960s, while working at Borgen’s, she frequently said, “Westby’s going to have a Norsk Festival before I die”. The ambitious young people making lefse on the float this year were Ella’s grandchildren: Cynthis, Vicki, Spencer and Lucas.   

About the same time the first plans were being made for holding a Syttende Mai celebration in Westby, Elaine Lund started the Norsemen Youth group for local high school students. The kids wanted things to do and Elaine loved doing things – what a match! 

Lefse-Polsa House

Elaine had the idea for having a float in the Syttende Mai Parade. She arranged for Art Dahlen to put together a float base, and encouraged the Norsemen Youth Club including Red Anderson, Kevin Sorenson and his brother Kent, to work out a "Making Lefse" skit. Hauling out the old wood cook stove and an old round oak table, they made a plan to demonstrate the busy excitement of baking lots of lefse.   

The “Lefse Float” was a big hit in the Syttende Mai parade that year; everyone had so much fun with it that they decided to enter their float in other parades. The float base was built to meet certain specifications so it could appear in the La Crosse Oktoberfest. On October 4, 1969 the Westby Lefse Float won The President’s Award in La Crosse’s Oktoberfest. The float went on to appear in numerous other parades, including the Winter Carnival in St. Paul, Minnesota, where they also won awards. 

Finally the cook stove, oak table, oak potato barrel and all the old costumes were carefully packed away in Elaine Lund’s cabin. In spring of 1970 Art Dahlen had the idea of building the Lefse House from all the lumber left from the float. Elaine had seen something similar in Decorah, and thought that selling “Lefse-Polsa” might be a good way to earn money for the kids in the Norsemen Youth group.   

Although Lefse-Polsa has been served from the Lefse House in front of Dregne’s every year since, after 5 or 6 years the Norsemen Youth group was discontinued. The Lefse-Polsa House was then used by various other organizations, including the Ladies Aid ALCW in Avalanche, the Westby Police Department and the Coon Prairie Preservation Society. For several years it was also used to sell Memorial Day flowers at the Country Coon Prairie Church. It currently belongs to the Westby Area Historical Society.   

Orion Samuelson, waiting for his order of Lefse and Pølse.
Orion is currently the host of This Week in AgriBusiness.

When the Westby Area Historical Society acquired the Lefse House, it was badly in need of repair. In spring of 2008 Ed Klos and Ron Kesler rebuilt the little house, installing new windows and log siding.  

Now the little Lefse House should be good for another 40 years in Westby.