Degerfors () is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivi ...

and the seat of

Degerfors Municipality Degerfors Municipality (''Degerfors kommun'') is a municipality in Örebro County in central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Degerfors. The northern part of the municipality was before 1925 part of Karlskoga Municipality, from which ...

Örebro County Örebro County ( sv, Örebro län) is a county or ''län'' in central Sweden. It borders the counties of Västra Götaland, Värmland, Dalarna, Västmanland, Södermanland and Östergötland. It is frequently culturally divided into the hilly no ...

, Sweden, with 7,160 inhabitants in 2010. Degerfors is the sixth-largest city in Örebro County. It is located at the southern shore of lake

Möckeln Möckeln is a lake in Karlskoga and Degerfors Municipalities in Örebro County, Sweden. Except for the settlements surrounding the lake, Degernäs Manor is situated at the southernmost tip of the lake and Valåsen Manor just north of the ...

, 13 km (8 mi) south of neighboring

Karlskoga Karlskoga () is a locality and the seat of Karlskoga Municipality, Sweden. Located within Örebro County, 45 km (28 mi) west of Örebro, and 10 km (6 mi) north of Degerfors. With a 2020 population of 27,386 distributed over 10.55 square miles ...

History

Degerfors has traditionally been an industrial community closely connected to the large

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...

, associated with members of the

Camitz family The Camitz family is a Swedish family, founded as an Austrian Silesian noble family, important to the industrial history of the broader Karlskoga–Degerfors-area. Where they managed ironworks. A member of the Camitz family, ironmaster Georg Ca ...

. The settlement (originally called Johannelund) grew up around this industry and got the status of a ''municipalsamhälle'' (a type of borough within a municipality) in 1912. Today it acts as seat of the larger Degerfors Municipality. In the 1870s, a group of people native to the Degerfors-area emigrated to the

Ural region Ural (russian: Урал) is a geographical region located around the Ural Mountains, between the East European and West Siberian plains. It is considered a part of Eurasian Steppe, extending approximately from the North to the South; from the A ...

(then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

Economy

The steelworks is now owned by the Finnish conglomerate

Outokumpu Oyj Outokumpu Oyj is a group of international companies headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, employing 10,600 employees in more than 30 countries. Outokumpu is the largest producer of stainless steel in Europe and the second largest producer in the ...

. The location has a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

and a narrow-gauge railway connecting it with Bredsjö, the . Tourists to the region usually stop at the Sveafallen nature reserve.

Sveafallen

Degesfors is the site of Sveafallen, a geological landscape of small canyons and

giant's kettle A giant's kettle, also known as either a giant's cauldron, moulin pothole, or glacial pothole, is a typically large and cylindrical pothole drilled in solid rock underlying a glacier either by water descending down a deep moulin or by gravel ro ...

s. Immediately south of Degerfors lies the

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

of Sveafallen. The reserve contains a series of small canyons as well as numerous and large

s. Sveafallen was long held to be the outlet of the

Ancylus Lake Ancylus Lake is a name given by geologists to a large freshwater lake that existed in northern Europe approximately from 9500 to 8000 years B.C being in effect one of various predecessors to the modern Baltic Sea. Origin, evolution and demise The ...

, a fresh-water predecessor to the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and fr ...

. The site was first discovered in 1923 by

Lennart von Post Ernst Jakob Lennart von Post (16June 188411January 1951) was a Swedish naturalist and geologist. He was the first to publish quantitative analysis of pollen and is counted as one of the founders of palynology. He was a professor at Stockholm Uni ...

being the focus of a protracted and sometimes bitter scientific debate that involved not only von Post but also figures such as

Henrik Munthe Henrik Vilhelm Munthe (1 November 1860 – 15 August 1958) was a Swedish geologist. Biography Munthe became a student in 1882 and in 1892 a doctor of philosophy and associate professor of geology at Uppsala University, where he was acting profes ...

Astrid Cleve Astrid Maria Cleve von Euler (22 January 1875 – 8 April 1968) was a Swedish botanist, geologist, chemist and researcher at Uppsala University. She was the first woman in Sweden to obtain a doctoral degree of science. Life Astrid Maria Clev ...

and

Curt Fredén Curt Fredén (born 1937) is a Swedish Quaternary geologist. Most of his work has centered on the Holocene geology of the Baltic Sea. He was a member of the landslide commission ( sv, Skredkommissionen) that existed from 1988 to 1996. In 2002 he w ...

. The site was initially proposed to be the dry remnant of a dramatic river or waterfall comparable to

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

. Research by Curt Fredén cast well founded doubts on this view, with the final demise being a 1981 study by Birgitta Ericsson et al showing that the giant's kettles in the area are older than the Ancylus Lake. Sveafallen is now believed to have formed by meltwater streams under the

Fennoscandian ice sheet The Weichselian glaciation was the last glacial period and its associated glaciation in northern parts of Europe. In the Alpine region it corresponds to the Würm glaciation. It was characterized by a large ice sheet (the Fenno-Scandian ice sheet) ...

Sports

Nationally, Degerfors is best known for the football team

Degerfors IF Degerfors IF is a Swedish football club located in Degerfors. The club, formed 13 January 1907, is currently playing in the highest tier in Swedish football, Allsvenskan. Background Degerfors IF first played in the Allsvenskan in 1939 making ...

. Despite the relatively small size of the town, Degerfors has always had strong local support, and played a total of 29 years in the highest division

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football le ...

. In 1997 the team were relegated and were playing in the second highest Swedish league,

Superettan Superettan (; meaning the super first (division)) is an association football league and the second highest league in the league system of Swedish men's football. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with All ...

until they achieved promotion back to Allsvenskan (highest Swedish league) in 2020. Another sports club located in Degerfors is

Strömtorps IK Strömtorps IK is a Swedish football club located in the neighbourhood of Strömtorp in Degerfors. Background Strömtorps Idrottsklubb is a sports club from Degerfors. The club was formed in April 1932 and football and skiing are its main sectio ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Populated places in Örebro County Populated places in Degerfors Municipality Municipal seats of Örebro County Swedish municipal seats Populated lakeshore places in Sweden