In 1850, a group of Norwegian settlers from Koshkonong, then the foremost Norwegian settlement colony in the United States, left southern Wisconsin and migrated north to settle in Roche-a-Cri. With a pioneer spirit and strong Lutheran faith, they homesteaded and became successful farmers, raising potatoes as their staple crop. In 1853, the Rev. H. A. Preus, a university-trained minister of the Norwegian state church, visited Roche-a-Cri and organized the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Roche-a-Cri with about thirty members, who held services in their homes. By 1859, the community and congregation had outgrown those meeting places and built a log church here. That structure was destroyed by fire, and in 1868 a frame church was erected one mile north of this location. The old church cemetery remains here as the South Arkdale Cemetery.