During a 2018 trip to Norway, Alan and Marilyn Pape from the Friends of the Saxonia House, visited the Bale log house in Balestrand. There they discovered that a near twin of the Bale House coincidentally might still be standing back home in Wisconsin! When they returned hime, Alan and restoration architect, Greg Zahn located the twin building still standing in a grove of brush 8 miles north of Madison. The owners of the log house were happy to donate it for educational purposes to Friends of the Saxonia House. Back in Balestrand, the Bale house is locally known as "the most painted and photographed log house on its original site in Norway.
Follow Dr. Michael Besch's research discoveries of these two log houses and the efforts to save one of them as an important example of Old World pioneer past.
