History

The beautiful breed of the Icelandic sheep first made the journey to North America thanks to the very persistent efforts of Stefania Sveinbjarnardottir. Stefania was a native of Iceland who had moved to Canada. The first import consisted of twelve sheep; the second import was 4 years later and included 73 sheep. Five years after that, Barbara Webb was the first to import the breed to the United States.

You can read the story of Stefania’s dedicated work to import the sheep that she loved. The story was written by the late ISBONA member Susan Briggs, who was one of the pioneers of the breed in the US. Much of Susan's website for her Tongue River Farm remains available for reference reading and is now maintained by another ISBONA member, Jeannie Reid at www.icelandicsheep.com.

Dr Ólafur Dýrmundsson of the Farmers Association in Iceland, an honorary member of ISBONA, was directly involved in both imports. He recently offered corrections to Susan Briggs’ article based on his direct experience. We are so grateful for his continued interest and help. 

Dr Dýrmundsson’s letter to former ISBONA president Dr. Susan Engwall is here.

PSSST: Wanna sneak peek at our timeline??  It is still in process. Send your suggestions to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..