Sørfold

The municipality is named after the fjord Folda (Norse *Fold). The inner part of the fjord is divided into two arms Nordfolda ('the northern Folda') and Sørfolda ('the southern Folda'). The meaning of the fjordname is unknown (maybe 'the broad one').

[edit] Geography

Trengsel Bridge on the E6 road

The district's total land area is 1661.6 km² - of which 141.0 km² is covered with permanent ice and snow, and only 265.8 km² lies below the 150-m contour. The total length of coastline is 249 km. In 1987 only 3.2 km² was being farmed. Rago National Park, with its wild nature dominated by bare rock, streams and pine forest, is located in Sørfold. There are several nature reserves. Veikdalen nature reserve, roughly 300 m above sea level, protects a largely undisturbed pine and birch forest (some logging before 1918) with many standing dead pine trees (Veikdalen).

The small village of Mørsvikbotten is located in the north of the district. Mørsvikbotten has a school, a grocery shop, a small church, an aquaculture co-op and a few camping sites. Five kilometers north of Mørsvikbotten lies the lake Mørsvikvatnet. In this area, Mørsry, the German army had a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II housing mostly Russian POWs. They were building a railway, which was intended to be a link between Fauske and Narvik. Some ruins of the camp, the foundations of the railway line, a tunnel and roads can still be observed. A small, now empty, cemetery for fallen Russian soldiers is located close to the camp, 50 m on the left-hand side just before the single concrete bridge. Other lakes are Andkjelvatnet, Sildhopvatnet and Trollvatnet.