Archipelago Halten County Sør-Trøndelag | Total islands 60+ Municipality Frøya | |
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Location Frøya, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway Major islands Husøya, Steinsøya, Rorsøya, Halten | ||
Halten is an old fishing village constituted of several uninhabited islands in the municipality of Frøya in Sør Trøndelag county, Norway. Halten is located at the northern end of the Froan islands and constitute the northernmost part of the string of islands north of Frøya, which stretch from Sula in the south to Halten in the north. Halten lighthouse is located on Halten.
Contents
Map of Halten, 7287 Sau%C3%B8y, Norway
History
The earliest written confirmation of human traffic on Halten is from 1548, and it shows a payment of a charge for access to the islands. However it is believed that Halten has been made use of much earlier than that.
In 1779, Henrik Borthen bought Froan as a whole and the region remained in the family's possession until 1927 when a Sør-Trøndelag agricultural company bought free the islands. Tobias Ulrik Borthen was responsible for most of the expansion and upgrading of the village, from 1868 and up until World War I. Tobias Borthen built a dock and a big Trønderlån (Skanklåna) which housed the local store and management and contained a radio station which was an important part of Haltens contact with the environmental society.
At the peak of its activity, Halten was the biggest fishing village off the coast of Trøndelag, with as much as up to 1,000 inhabitants in the main fishing seasons. The population reached a point where a hospital was established on Halten, though it was scarce compared to today's standards. The decline in activity on Halten started when fishing vessels got more and more modernised and had cabins which eliminated the need for housing for the visiting fishermen. In 1963, Skanklåna burned down to the ground, this marks the beginning of the end of Halten as a community and the dislodging escalated in strength. In 1988, Torstein Erbo the current manager of Halten decided to shut down the fish delivery plant. The two last inhabitants left Halten in 1988.
Present-day Halten
A lot of people connected to Halten stay there during the summer, it is also an attractive destination for visiting tourist. The houses on Halten all have special names like; Vestindien, Banken, Høiskolen, Telemonhei, Minde, Klasbua, Sykehuset, Tempelet, Svana, Havna, Ostindien, Bakklund, Britania and many more. The third Saturday of July each year is "Haltenday", when Rommegrot is served in Fiskarheimen (the old local community house) during the day and there is a folk dance in an old loft down on the dockhouse at night.