Lille Ekkerøy ( sme, Ižžot) is an island in
Vadsø Municipality
Vadsø (; sme, Čáhcesuolu; fkv, Vesisaari) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark County, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Vadsø, which was the administrative centre of the former Finnmark county. Oth ...
in
Finnmark
Finnmark (; se, Finnmárku ; fkv, Finmarku; fi, Ruija ; russian: Финнмарк) was a county in the northern part of Norway, and it is scheduled to become a county again in 2024.
On 1 January 2020, Finnmark was merged with the neighbouri ...
county,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
. The island lies in the
Varangerfjorden
The Varangerfjord ( en, Varanger Fjord; russian: Варангер-фьорд, Варяжский залив; fi, Varanginvuono; sme, Várjavuonna) is the easternmost fjord in Norway, north of Finland. The fjord is located in Troms og Finnmark co ...
, about off the coast of the mainland
Varanger Peninsula
The Varanger Peninsula ( no, Varangerhalvøya; sme, Várnjárga; fkv, Varenkinniemi) is a peninsula in Finnmark county, Norway. It is located in the northeasternmost part of Norway, along the Barents Sea. The peninsula has the Tanafjorden to ...
. It is located about southeast of the village of
Krampenes
Krampenes is a village in Vadsø Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It is located on the northern shore of the Varangerfjorden on the eastern shore of the Varanger Peninsula. It lies along the European route E75 highway, about no ...
and about northeast of the village of
Ekkerøy. The town of
Vadsø
Vadsø (; sme, Čáhcesuolu; fkv, Vesisaari) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark County, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Vadsø, which was the administrative centre of the former Finnmark county. O ...
is located about to the west of the island.
World War II
The
lighthouse on the island was a cause of concern to
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
forces in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
and, at one stage, the keeper was captured and taken away for questioning by a landing party of Soviet marines.
Polar bear
In 1953, a
polar bear was shot on the island. The bear was found by the brothers
Aksel Jacobsen Bogdanoff (1922–1971) and Ingvald Bogdanoff (1920–1995) when they were out inspecting their salmon nets in the area. It was believed that the bear had come on an
ice-floe from
Svalbard.
This is the last time that a polar bear was seen anywhere in Finnmark county.
Population
Although the island is now uninhabited, this was not always the case. In 1567, when there were only eight families in the town of Vadsø and five families in
Store Ekkerøy, there were eight families on Lille Ekkerøy.
The eleven children of Signe Bogdanoff (née Dahl, from
Tromsø
Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø.
Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the ...
) and Jacob Wilhelm Bogdanoff (which included the brothers Aksel Jacobsen Bogdanoff and Ingvald Bogdanoff mentioned above) were the last generation who lived on Lille Ekkerøy. They were evacuated during World War II, moving to
Krampenes
Krampenes is a village in Vadsø Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. It is located on the northern shore of the Varangerfjorden on the eastern shore of the Varanger Peninsula. It lies along the European route E75 highway, about no ...
, but returned and lived there until about 1953, when they moved back to Krampenes.
[Private communication from Monica Milch Gebhardt, a collections consultant and project manager in the museum in Vadsø, August 2012.]
See also
*
Store Ekkerøy
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lille Ekkeroy, Vadso
Vadsø
Islands of the Barents Sea