Efforts are under way to bring a group of North Dakotans with ties to Norway to Norway for next year's Fourth of July observances.

This trip is one of the events being planned in North Dakota to commemorate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. On July 4, 1914, North Dakota Gov. Louis Hanna presented a heroic-size bust of the 16th President to Norway for that nation's centennial of its independence from Sweden.

Joining Hanna at the 1914 dedication ceremony for the bust in Oslo's Frogner Park was a large delegation of other North Dakotans. Rick Collin, who is the state coordinator for North Dakota's Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial observance, said annual July 4 programs have been held in front of the bust every year since by the U.S. Embassy and others with ties to the U.S. and North Dakota.

"During Germany's World War II occupation of Norway, the Lincoln bust became the site of silent anti-Nazi protests every July 4, from 1940 until the war's end in 1945," said Collin, communications and education director for the State Historical Society of North Dakota, in a statement. "Thousands of Norwegians would gather around the statue, their heads bowed in silence and prayer. Typically, the Germans forbade any public gatherings or demonstrations, but they did not halt this annual event."

Collin said the U.S. Homestead Act, which was signed by President Lincoln in 1862, brought many Northern Europeans, including people from Norway, to then-northern Dakota Territory, later North Dakota. The original Homestead Act, bearing President Lincoln's signature, is now on display at the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck through Nov. 10, 2008.

Organizing next year's trip is the University of North Dakota's Nordic Initiative, North Dakota Horizons magazine, and Brekke Tours and Travel of Grand Forks. In addition to participating in the July 4, 2009, ceremony, other plans for the group include a reception at the U.S. Embassy and other stops in the Oslo area, as well as Norway's fjord country.

More details about the trip will be available in September. Collin said anyone wishing to be on a mailing list for more information should contact Brekke Tours and Travel at 800-437-5302, or e-mail tours@;brekketours.com.

For more information about the Lincoln Bicentennial, visit the State Historical Society of North Dakota at www.nd.gov/hist or the Abraham Lincoln National Bicentennial Commission at www.abrahamlincoln200.org.