Little Norway was a living museum of a Norwegian village located in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. Little Norway consisted of a fully restored farm dating to the mid-19th century. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Little Norway closed in late 2012. History Little Norway began when Osten Olson Haugen, an immigrant from Telemark, Norway, settled on during the 1850s. Mr. Haugen built a dwelling house and other buildings out of timber cut on the property. The Haugen family farmed the land until 1920. In the early 1930s, a Chicago businessman named Isak Dahle was inspired by a recent tour of Norway and memories of his childhood in Southeastern Wisconsin to replicate a Norwegian farm as a gift to his family. He christened it Little Norway and gave it the Norwegian name Nissedahle—a pun on the word dal, meaning valley, and his surname. Dahle died of cancer in 1937. The site was taken over by his relative, University of Wisconsin Agricultural Economics Department chair Asher Hobson, after Dahle died in 1937. It was taken over by his daughter and later his grandson Scott Winner. After the end of World War II, the owners had offered to sell the facility the State of Wisconsin for $1 but the state didn't want to take on the maintenance of the property. Little Norway closed late in 2012. Owner Scott Winner cited costs exceeds revenues for shutting it down. He has been selling off pieces of the collection to museums and private collectors to help pay a $22,000 annual tax bill. The property listed for $1.9 million as of December 2014. Since its 2012 closure, Winner has spoken with the Wisconsin Historical Society and other foundations about purchasing the property but no deal has been reached. Norway Building Perhaps the best-known attraction at Little Norway is the Norway Building which was built in Orkdal, Norway for the Norway Pavilion at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. by Christian Thams. It was moved to Little Norway and was one of the few examples of Norse stave church architecture outside of Norway. Along with the Maine State Building in Poland, Maine, the Norway building is one of the few remaining buildings from the Chicago World's Fair. After the closing of the Chicago World's Fair, the Norway Building was sold to C.K.G. Billings, a prominent Chicago business man, and relocated by train to his vacation estate