Småland summer attractions

From Astrid Lindgren’s World to a Wild West Adventure in the middle of the Småland forest. 

• In the previous issue, we featured the indomitable Småland spirit and how it has affected its people and culture. The spirit is also apparent in its many summer attractions. Two of the most popular ones are Astrid Lindgren’s Värld in Vimmerby and High Chaparral in Hillerstorp. In the former, visitors can enjoy the world of Lindgren’s most popular books by meeting many of its characters, from Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking) to the Bröderna Lejonhjärta (Brothers Lionheart). The theme park also features Sweden’s largest outdoor seating theater, which can host up to 800 visitors.
  High Chaparral is a Wild West theme park and post-industrial museum of cultural artifacts and collectibles located near Hillerstorp. It opened in 1966 and was founded by Bengt Erlandsson, more commonly known as “Big Bengt.” His interest in the American frontier and Wild West was inspired by the immigrants who told their stories to the folks back home in Sweden's countryside.
  Erlandsson went to the United States himself in 1956 at the age of 34 and covered 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) during his four-month visit. He returned to Sweden with many impressions. When the Swedish national phone company took down 200,000 telephone poles, Erlandsson recognized an opportunity and constructed a western style frontier fort and town with log cabins as it might have been used by the old United States Cavalry in the Indian Wars on the western frontier during the 19th century.
  When many people started to get curious about the place, he realized its tourism possibilities. The theme park that emerged was similar to Walt Disney's construction of the "Frontierland” portions built into entertainment parks in several foreign countries decades later. It has many times been called the best theme park in Sweden or the Nordic Countries overall; in 2020, it was voted the best theme park in the Nordic Countries by barnsemester.se.
  I had the pleasure of visiting High Chaparral many times from early childhood into adult life, most recently at the age of 32 in 2011, and always enjoyed seeing how the parents (mostly fathers) of the kids seemed to enjoy the park even more than their kids. My American wife, included. She admitted that it was “not bad as she had feared” after our first visit in 2009.
  By Jimmy Granström