Salemsborg Lutheran Church, Smolan, KS

Salemsborg Lutheran Church of Smolan, Kansas was founded by Swedish immigrants primarily form the province of Smaland in south central Sweden. They emigrated in the mid to late 1860's and temporarily settled in the Galesborg, Illinois area. In the summer of 1868, Anders W. Dahlsten, pastor of 1st Lutheran in Galesburg, lead a party representing the Galesburg Land Company to Kansas to search for a place where a large group of Swedes could settle, find economic opportunity, retain their Swedish culture and most importantly worship God in a free environment.

The Swedes found that place in the Smoky Valley of central Kansas. Salemsborg, the word translated into English and Meaning "Peaceful Fortress," was founded in the summer of 1869 and within a few years the valley was filled with farms and businesses where Swedish language and culture, art and music, and Swedish Lutheranism would flourish.

Salemsborg Lutheran Church began in a humble sod dugout, progressed to a small frame church, then to a large single spire church, which was struck by lightning and burned to the ground in 1926. Today, more than 130 years later, and nestled among the farms and in the shadow of the Smoky Hills stands a magnificent two tower Romanesque style cathedral where the bell calls us to worship and the words " A Mighty Fortress is Our God" are inscribed above the doors both in Swedish and in English reminding us of who we are and of our Swedish pioneer heritage. And to the south, upon the northernmost of the Smoky Hills, a cross of white sandstone reminds us of the hardships of the Swedish pioneers and the legacy of Lutheran worship in the Smoky Valley of Kansas.