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NORWAY - The Scandinavian influence is still felt in this western Upper Peninsula city. Many of the city's residents are descendants of northern European immigrants who settled here around the turn of the last century to work in the once flourishing mining industry. Evoking the community's heritage are replicas of Norwegian Viking ships that serve as gateway signs at each entrance to the city.
When this city was a booming mining town, the State Bank of Norway was chartered on June 12, 1901, and capitalized at $25,000. Two years later, the bank's state charter was converted and its name was changed to the First National Bank of Norway. One hundred years later, mining has given way to logging and paper milling as the biggest industries, and the bank is experiencing steady growth as it prepares to open its second branch office.
The past decade has been especially eventful for the bank. In 1993, it built a new 9,000-square-foot main office at 501 W. U.S. 2 on the city's west side. Four years later, the bank opened a full-service grocery-store branch office in the downtown area at Ebeling's Supermarket, 531 Main St. The bank's market area includes Dickinson and Menominee counties in the western U.P. and Marinette County in northeastern Wisconsin.
As the bank expanded its market area, business has boomed. Since the late 1980s, the bank's loan portfolio has more than doubled from $17 million to over $41 million, deposits have grown from $30 million to $47.5 million, and total assets are up over $20 million to $57.2 million. Mortgage lending account for 55 percent of the total loans, followed by commercial loans at just under 40 percent and consumer loans at about 6 percent.
The bank's second century of business is beginning to look just as promising as its first. This fall, the bank's second branch is expected to debut at 1917 N. Stephenson Ave. in the northwestern section of Iron Mountain, the...