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Show State Representative Tom Hatch, Panguitch, greets Iceland's president Dr. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson at Bryce Canyon Airport on Saturday. Iceland's president, Dr. Olafur Grimsson, his wife Gudrun Katrin and Utah State Repre sentative BrentHaymond enjoy the Dutch Oven buffet at Rubys Inn. Grimsson explained Iceland's plans to enhance his country's relations with the U.S. Iceland's President Seeks Closer Relations With U.S. BRYCE A delegation from Iceland, that included its president, here on a five-day sightseeing and ceremonial tour of the state of Utah, was hosted Saturday by the Bryce Canyon Natural History Association, Best Western Ruby's Inn and a variety of state and local dignitaries. Iceland's president, Dr. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson and wife Madame Gudrun Katrin Thor-bergsdottir; Thor-bergsdottir; Deputy Chief of Mission Sveinn Bjornsson and wife Magnea and Secretary General Kornelius Sigmundsson arrived at Bryce Canyon Airport on Saturday. Utah's welcoming and host delegation included State Representative Repre-sentative J. Brent Haymond the Vice Consul to Iceland for the state of Utah and representative to Springville and Mapleton; State Representative Tom Hatch, Art Johnson and son Jack Johnson whose daughter Lilliam "Lil" Shepard is president of the Icelandic Ice-landic Association, and David Ashby a former president of the Icelandic Association The Icelandic group was visiting Utah and especially the Spanish Fork area, to pay tribute to early Icelandic Mormon pioneers who initially settled that area. President Grimsson laid a wreath at the base of the Icelandic Monument there. Grimsson, 53, is a former Minister of Finance and chairman of the People's Alliance Party in Iceland. He was elected the fifth president of the Republic of Iceland on June 29 replacing Ms. Vigdid Finnbogadottir, who is retiring after 16 years as president. presi-dent. The newly elected head of state will take office in August for a four-year term. The new president, presi-dent, the fifth in the 51 -year history of the Republic of Iceland has a Ph.D. in political science and took the election with 40.9 percent of the total vote. He was a former professor at the University Univer-sity of Iceland, and was elected to Althingi, the parliament as the representative of Reykjavik and Minister of Finance from 1988 to s 1991. He and wife Gudrun are the parents of twin daughters, Gudrun Tinna and Svanhildur Dalla who presently attend the University of Iceland. The Icelandic delegation departed de-parted Washington, D.C. on Wednesday evening, July 23 arriving in Salt Lake City. Grimsson spent the following day in Spanish Fork riding as guest of honor in a horse-drawn carriage in their Pioneer Day Parade celebration. cele-bration. Iceland played rich historical his-torical significance in the settling of the Spanish Fork area in the early days of the Mormon trek westward. Grimsson placed a wreath at the base of the Iceland Monument there, then attended a luncheon with local dignitaries and members of the Icelandic Association Board. Following lunch he toured original Icelandic homes and the Icelandic section of the Spanish Fork Cemetery. That evening he traveled to Brig-ham Brig-ham Young University to meet with governors and attended a western rodeo in Spanish Fork. On Friday, Grimsson attended a breakfast hosted by the Utah State Legislature and toured the LDS Church Welfare Sort Center for international distribution of goods. Then a demonstration of family search of Icelandic ancestors ances-tors at the LDS Family History Center, a screening of the movie "Legacy" about the LDS Church's movement west, a tour of the Missionary Training Center and dinner at BYU. Later that evening they attended the Pioneer Sesquicentennial Spectacular. Saturday the group flew through the Green River Gorge, over Dead Horse Point arriving in Moab for a drive and walk through Arches National Park. Grimsson arrived at the Bryce Canyon Airport at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The group was welcomed wel-comed by Garfield County's own delegation which included County Commissioners Clare Ramsay and Maloy Dodds, Panguitch City Mayor Elaine Baldwin, Tropic Town Mayor Jean Seiler, Bryce (See Iceland's President Seeks Closer U.S. Relations Page 3A) Iceland's President Seeks Closer Relations With U.S. From Front Page Canyon National Park Superintendent Superin-tendent Fred Fagergren, and Bryce Canyon Natural History Association Director Gayle Pollock. Pol-lock. Representative Haymond spoke briefly introducing the Icelandic delegation and giving some background on the group of Icelanders who emigrated from that country to the U.S. From 1850 to 1880, Iceland was seeking its independence from Denmark. In 1854, Gudman Gudmansson returned to Iceland from Copenhagen where he had learned to be a skilled watchmaker watch-maker and where he and two others had converted to the LDS Church. Living in the Westman Islands off the coast of Iceland, they shared what they had learned about his church with others. His fellow citizens thought they should be more committed to Iceland's fight for independence and were offended by the converts' zeal for their new found religion. Subsequent bad feelings and a loss of their lands caused the growing number of converts to emigrate to the U.S., a group of 80 families arriving in Spanish Fork between 1854 and 1890 where they underwent challenging circumstances. In 1885, Haywood's Hay-wood's own grandmother, at age six, joined that group. Iceland's newly elected President Presi-dent Grimsson has long wanted to bridge the gap that was created so many years ago between Iceland and the descendants of those early pioneers. He seeks reconciliation recon-ciliation and set forth a seven-point seven-point plan in the talk that followed. First, he said, a museum in northern Iceland, "dedicated to showing the lives and journeys of those who traveled from Iceland to America" is in its first year of operation. The Icelandic Government will secondly coordinate interdepartmentally inter-departmentally the work done by different departments to enhance U.S. - Icelandic relationships. Third, the Icelandic Soil Conservation Con-servation Service has invited the U.S. to participate in an "extensive "exten-sive environmental network dedicated dedi-cated to rebuilding the ecological health of Iceland. The fourth step will promote in every Icelandic region an effective effect-ive system of welcoming and hosting Americans who want to discover their Icelandic relatives and learn about their ancestors. The fifth step will be a program, called "Youth and Heri- (See Iceland's Presidents Seeks Closer U.S. Relations Page 5A) Iceland Seeks Closer Relations From Page 3 A tage," designed to "foster a deeper understanding and knowledge knowl-edge of Icelandic culture." The Icelandic Sagas, a traditional source of wisdom for every Icelandic home, have only recently been published in an English edition. President Grimsson said, "Together with the Bible, they have accompanied accompan-ied us wherever we have travelled." trav-elled." Seventh, Iceland promises, he said, "to use modern technology, the Internet, video and films, to" bring the richness of - the Icelandic-American culture, the letters, the life stories, the poems, the literature, the pictures and the paintings who desires to strengthen strength-en his or her roots in a world dominated by dramatic forces of change. "I have undertaken this journey jour-ney to emphasize the scope for economic co-operation between the modern Icelandic nation and the people of Icelandic descent in America, to point out the opportunities oppor-tunities for ioint enternrises in the ' fields of high technology, finance, industry and commerce," Grimsson Grims-son said. Security was heavy at the airport for the arrival of the Icelandic delegation. An authentic "Dutch oven" style Pioneer meal awaited them at Ruby's Inn, uniquely prepared by Chef Orlan Reusch and his kitchen staff. Peggy Dalton, on staff at Ruby's Inn, specially decorated a conference room for the luncheon with complete place settings of blue enamelware, extra serving pieces of the enamelware and tin cups at each place with an attractively folded neckerchief to take home. The entire room was punctuated with displays of pioneer pio-neer artifacts with framed photos on the walls. The serving tables had Dutch oven-like serving pieces on warming trays. The meal included Dutch-oven chicken, chick-en, beef and pork; Dutch oven potatoes and beans, green salad, rolls, and a variety of fresh-baked cnhhlfrs |