SCOUTING REPORT | An ambassador and an opera, Augustana’s new apartments, mystery explosion, judicial changes

A weekly digest of interesting local, state, national and even international developments

Sioux Falls hosted Norway’s ambassador to the United States, who visited on April 26 before heading to Rapid City the next day. Anniken Huitfeldt’s visit was the second by a Norwegian ambassador to the state in less than a year. She visited Augustana University and the Courthouse Museum, two institutions heavily influenced by Norwegian immigrants, a population group that made significant contributions to the Upper Great Plains in its formative years.

But the highlight of her trip to the state’s largest city was a nice dinner at Parker’s Bistro, followed by the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Giants in the Earth: The Norwegians in Dakota Territory. The opera was based on the classic book by Ole Edvart Rølvaag’s classic novel about Norwegian immigrants who settled in Dakota Territory in 1873.

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