The resourceful traveler.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: June Sawyers

ETHNIC TRAVEL GUIDES

_"On the Viking Trail: Travels in Scandinavian America" (University of Iowa Press; $27.95)

Don Lago precedes his journey to Scandinavian America with a visit to his ancestral home of Granna in Sweden. That seems only right because he is searching for memories and is determined to combat the phenomenon of American immigrants and their descendants often forgetting their connections to the lands from which they came. Unfortunately, it is only when his father develops Alzheimer's that he begins to appreciate the part that memory plays in maintaining cultural heritage. So Lago commits himself to explore not only Swedish America, but also Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Icelandic America too. He visits the giant Swedish coffeepot that looms over Stanton, Iowa, hometown of actress Virginia Christine, better known as Mrs. Olson in the old …