Setskog is a village and a former municipality in

Viken Viken may refer to: *Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region *Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020 *Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden *Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...

county, Norway. It bordered

Østfold Østfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in southeastern Norway. It borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other side o ...

county to the south,

Hedmark Hedmark () was a county in Norway before 1 January 2020, bordering Trøndelag to the north, Oppland to the west, Akershus to the south, and Sweden to the east. The county administration is in Hamar. Hedmark and Oppland counties were merged i ...

county to the north and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

to the east.

History

Setskog was created by a split from

Høland Høland is a former municipality in Akershus county, Norway. History Høland was created in 1837 as a formannskapsdistrikt, a Norwegian local self-government district. The district Setskog was separated from Høland to form a separate municipali ...

municipality on 1 January 1905. At that time Setskog had a population of 754. On 1 January 1966 Setskog merged with

Nordre Høland Nordre Høland is a former municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It was created when Høland municipality was split in two on 1 July 1924. At that time Nordre Høland had a population of 3.188. On 1 January 1966 Nordre Høland was merged with ...

Søndre Høland Søndre Høland is a former municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It was created when Høland municipality was split in two on 1 July 1924. At that time Søndre Høland had a population of 2,106. On 1 January 1964 Søndre Høland was merged w ...

and

Aurskog Aurskog is a former municipality in Akershus county, Norway. The administrative centre was Aursmoen Aursmoen is a village in the municipality of Aurskog-Høland, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries ...

to form the new municipality

Aurskog-Høland Aurskog-Høland is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bjørkelangen. The municipality of Rømskog, in Østfold count ...

. Prior to the merger Setskog had a population of 811. ''Setskog'' is an old district name. The first element is the name of the lake

Setten Setten is a lake that lies in Setskog in Aurskog-Høland municipality in Akershus. The lake lies in typical forest terrain. The lake has many bays and small islands, and is a popular canoeing, fishing and camping area. The lake is part of the Ha ...

, the last element is ''skog'' meaning 'forest, woodland'. The meaning of the name ''Setten'' is unknown. The

Soot Canal The Soot Canal ( no, Sootkanalen) was a canal system located in Eidskog Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. Constructed in 1849, it has Norway's oldest sluice gates. It was the work of Engebret Soot (1786-1859). It was built to allow timber ...

, a timber transportation system constructed by

Engebret Soot Engebret Olsen Soot (26 May 1786 – 3 March 1859) was a Norwegian engineer. He was one of Norway's first canal builders and joined the timber channels at Otteid and Mangen-Grasmo. He is known as the father of the Fredrikshald Canal (now known a ...

(1786-1859), went through Setskog from 1849 to 1938. It went from the lake Mortsjølungen on the border to

Eidskog Eidskog is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Vinger. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Skotterud. Other villages in the municipality include Magnor, Matrand, ...

until the timber was transported on the

Grasmo Grasmo is a small settlement in eastern Norway, on the border to Sweden. Its in the northern part of the village of Setskog in Aurskog-Høland municipality in Akershus County. It is currently inhabited by 6-7 families. History The first re ...

banen railroad, then through several lakes and a long narrow timbercanal, finally ending into the lake

where the timber was transported further south all the way to

Halden Halden (), between 1665 and 1928 known as Fredrikshald, is both a town and a municipality in Viken county, Norway. The municipality borders Sarpsborg to the northwest, Rakkestad to the north and Aremark to the east, as well as the Swedish muni ...

. Parts of the canalsystems, are now protected due to its historical value. An annual march, Sootkanalmarsjen, is held every summer, where hikers follow the entire length of the canal.

Goliat

Setskog was once home to Norway's largest tree, a ca 250-year-old

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

. Some say the tree dated back to 1750 and it reached 47 meters in the air until wind broke the top reducing the height to 41.75 meters. Vandals cut the tree with a chainsaw in 2005, which left the tree badly damaged and eventually resulted in the tree dying and declining at a fast rate. In 2010, the municipality decided to cut the dead tree down, but the remains will serve as part of a tribute on the local soccer field.

References

External links

Dag Jukvam / Statistics Norway; Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen
{{authority control Former municipalities of Norway Villages in Akershus Aurskog-Høland