Degerfors () is a locality and the seat of Degerfors Municipality, Örebro County, 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, 13 km (8 mi) south of neighboring Karlskoga.

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 bloomeri ...

, associated with members of the Camitz family. 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 (then part of the Russian Empire).

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 A ...

. The location has a railway station 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 kettles. Immediately south of Degerfors lies the nature reserve of Sveafallen. The reserve contains a series of small canyons as well as numerous and large giant's kettles. 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 site was first discovered in 1923 by Lennart von Post being the focus of a protracted and sometimes bitter scientific debate that involved not only von Post but also figures such as Henrik Munthe, Astrid Cleve 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. 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.

Sports

Nationally, Degerfors is best known for the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 maki ...

. 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 lea ...

. 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 Al ...

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