What's a Norwegian stabbur, and why is there one in this small Minnesota town?

Nearly 40 years ago, a building was sent over piece by piece from Norway to a farm in Chippewa County, Minnesota. It's one of the only stabburs in the United States.

In the little town of Milan, Scandinavian pride is everywhere, from the grocery store mural to the main street Viking. But just a few miles out of town, you'll find something that came directly from the motherland.

"It came in a container. It must have been shipped in a container," said Jerry Lee.

He's talking about a building that was shipped all the way from Vinstra, Norway, to Don Peterson's farm. It's called a Norwegian stabbur. And it's basically an outdoor pantry that you can sleep in.

"They would store their summer clothes in there in the wintertime and their winter clothes there in the summertime," said Lee, Peterson's son-in-law.

The backstory is that while visiting Europe, Peterson became friends with Norwegian Halvard Pettersen. Pettersen was looking to honor Americans for helping his country during World War II. So, he built the stabbur out of Norway Pine, disassembled it and shipped it piece by piece more than 4,000 miles to Peterson's farm. Then he flew over and put it together.

"Halvard wouldn't let them use any power tools," Jerry Lee said.

The finished product included a bell tower and a sod roof which never leaked. It became the Norwegian version of, "If you build it, they will come."

"After it was built, there were busloads that came out," said Jason Lee, Peterson's grandson. "The old house, the kitchen faced this. So grandpa got a privacy screen he could put down because he got tired of all the visitors at times."

They came from across the country — and even from Europe.

After 10 years and about 5,000 visitors, the stabbur began to lean a little bit. So back in Norway, Pettersen came up with a pretty creative solution to that problem.

Instead of Ole and Lena, he sent Ola and Kari. There's more to the hand-carved statues than meets the eye. Like strong Scandinavians, they are now holding up the stabbur and they can be adjusted when the building starts to sag.

"Halvard didn't want just a screw jack sitting here, so they are hiding screw jacks. Take the plates off, that's how you adjust them," said Jason Lee.

After Peterson and his wife passed away, Jason Lee moved onto the property. He's now the Stabbur's caretaker and greeter when visitors stop by. He has never forgotten why his grandpa received such a special Scandinavian gift.

"It was Halvard's thank you for all the help the U.S. did for Norway during World War II and it is neat to see," said Jason Lee.

Like stabburs back in Norway, this one also sits off the ground to keep the rodents out. It's located about 4 ½ miles southeast of Milan.