Andreas and Isaac Strinden, shipbuilders from Strinden Hill, Städ, Norway, homesteaded in the Minnesota lake country shortly after the Civil War. Lacking a need for ships on the frontier, they hand-hewed lumber into floors and furnishings for themselves and their neighbors.

Steve Revland, great-grandson of Isaac Strinden, sculpts in wood in the tradition of his ancestors, with the same precision and fluidity of line that has distinguished Norwegian woodcraft since the days of the Vikings.