Albert Lea’s Mermaid

In New Denmark Park in Albert Lea (at the edge of Fountain Lake), there is a mermaid similar to the one in Copenhagen. Of course, Fountain Lake is not the North Sea and Albert Lea is not Copenhagen, but during the early part of the last century they were not that dissimilar. Decades earlier, Danes observed the flat land and open expanses of water of southern Minnesota and thought, holy shit, this is just like home, and established churches, farms and businesses, and spoke Danish until English (with a strong brogue) gradually replaced the original tongue. In some ways the park and mermaid are a hasty and crudely American reminder of the past, but in most ways they are not. For what we are, our most essential selves, is always deeply buried in our roots.