"On Tuesday morning, May 17 [1904], the Bjornson 'bauta sten' which had been placed on the A.C. grounds, in honor of Bjornstjerne Bjornson, the great Norwegian writer and statesman, was formally unveiled. The college and city was in holiday attire for the occasion. The buildings were all tastily decorated with bunting and the flags of Norway and the United States. A large crowd, variously estimated from three to five thousand, was on the grounds at 10 o'clock waiting for the program to begin." (The Spectrum, May 15, 1904, p. 113.)
In 1903 thirteen citizens of Abercrombie, N.D., decided to honor a living
heroic Norwegian- figure, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, by erecting a 'Bauta Sten'
to him on the campus of the North Dakota Agricultural College. Dr. Herman
Fjelde and the other men on the committee in Abercrombie commissioned a Chicago
sculptor, Asbjornsen, to design a bronze medallion of Bjornson to 'remind
the sons and daughters and future students of this great Scandinavian.'
After the Abercrombie committee commissioned the bronze medallion of Bjornson,
Dr. Fjelde on a trip to Norway, secured a block of granite from a quarry near
the home of Bjornson at Aulestad and had it shipped to St. Cloud, Minn., for
processing. The medallion was placed on one side of the 13 foot pedestal,
and a quotation from Bjornson's National Song on the other." (Midweek
Eagle, September 1, 1987, p. 2)
The stone is located south of Old Main, between Putnam and Burgum
Halls.