Hi Leslee, I'm not from the Island but my grandmother was and I buried both my mother and my grandmother in our Schoolhouse Beach family plot after memorial services in the Stavkirke. You and a few other people have been speculating about who built it and it's a sweet little story and why both my mom and grandmother wanted their services there. It was built in 1991 by the island residents who are variously Scandinavian (I trace my descent from Lars Peter Ottosen making myself, my mother and my grandmother all part Danish). It was built by the community to evoke the Norwegian style and if I recall correctly the techniques used to build it are also all traditional. Scandinavians do have that nautical tradition which is why there was a model of a sailing vessel hanging from the ceiling, but also many of the residents of the Island made their living by fishing the Great Lakes. My Uncle Ken (the owner of that restaurant advertising "fresh lawyers") was written up in some newspaper as "the last commercial fisherman in the Great Lakes." Glad you enjoyed the Island. My mother and grandmother thought of it as home even when they were living far away. Mom was a regulations officer and never worked a day on a boat but she asked that her memorial have a nautical theme in honor of her Island roots and that Stavkirke.

Can you attend a church service?