Verksodden

Tussen het meer Espedalsvatnet en het meer Breidsjøen in het midden van het dal ligt Verksodden. Verksodden is in een vorige blogpost al aan bod gekomen en wel in de Espedalen Fjellkirke blogpost.

Hieronder de geschiedenis van Verksodden van de Dalseter website.

In a few periods from 1846 to 1878 nickel was found in the valley. During these periods there was a small "town" situated at Verksodden. It included a school, church, gathering house, office, apartments for the workers, a smelting hut, a mill and sawmill amongst other. There where up to 700- 1000 workers in the valley at that time.

In choosing the place to build a smelting house there were several factors to consider. The starting point was the availability of copper ore, but access to large forests of timber and the availability of water power were also decisive in the production of copper.
Primarily it was important to find a situation that required the least amount of transport. Firstly, the ore had to be transported from the mines to the smelting house, which could be several kilometres away. Secondly, the operation of the smelters relied on the availability of charcoal and firewood.
Another deciding factor for the operation of the smelting plant was a stable supply of water-power. The smelting houses therefore had to be situated by a flowing river that did not freeze over in the winter months and had sufficient power to drive the bellows that forced air into the smelting furnaces.
Some of the "left over's" of this is still to be found between the lake Espedalsvatnet and the lake Breidsjøen. The smelting oven itself (the old norwegian name was "masovn") is partly restored and stands as a monument for peoples work and strive in this mountain valley. 
 

Today we only see the walls and water channel. From the smelting oven itself and down to Breidsjøen lies large amounts of slag - which was the waist from the smelting process.

Verksodden

Erg leuk setje

Omgeving Verksodden

Omgeving Verksodden

Overblijfselen smeltoven

De bovenstaande foto is vanaf de weg gemaakt. Het huis erachter leek ons privé gebied. Hieronder volgen nog wat foto's van de smeltoven.

Verksodden informatiebord

Op internet een foto uit 1954 gevonden. Dit was de staat van de smeltoven voor de restauratie in 1990.

Foto van de smeltoven uit 1954

Volgens de Engelstalige beschrijving aan het begin van deze post moet er een grote hoeveelheid slaksteen (slag) liggen. Het slaksteen is afval afkomstig van het smeltproces. We hebben het niet gezien of beter gezegd, er niet op gelet. Slaksteen zijn we ook tegengekomen in Pershyttan. Meer informatie over Verksodden is hier te vinden.