| Kåfjord | |
|---|---|
| — Village — | |
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Kåfjord
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Norway |
| Region | Northern Norway |
| County | Finnmark |
| Municipality | Alta |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+01) |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+02) |
Kåfjord is a fjord in northern Norway, an arm of the Altafjord, in the county of Finnmark, and a village located on the fjord. The village is in the municipality of Alta, 18 km west of the town of Alta on the European route E6.
Copper ore was mined at Kåfjord between 1826 and 1909[1]. A mining company, Altens Kobberverk, was founded by two Englishmen in 1826, and by the 1840s the village grew to become the largest settlement in Finnmark, with over 1,000 inhabitants, including Englishmen from Cornwall. The copper works are now derelict.
In 1837 the British built a church, restored in 1969.
At the summit of Mount Haldde, 9 km by a track from Kåfjord, is a restored Northern Lights Observatory, established by Kristian Birkeland in 1899 and operational until 1926, when it was transferred to Tromsø.[2]
During the Second World War, the German battleship Tirpitz used Kåfjord as a harbour, and she was damaged there by British aircraft and by Royal Navy midget submarines in Operation Source. The Tirpitz Museum in the village is devoted to the Tirpitz[3].