Setskog is a village and a former municipality in

Akershus Akershus () is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akers ...

county, Norway. It bordered

Østfold Østfold () is a county in Eastern Norway, which from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2023 was part of Viken. Østfold borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other ...

county to the south,

Hedmark Hedmark () was a Counties of Norway, county in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, bordering Trøndelag to the north, Oppland to the west, Akershus to the south, and Sweden to the east. The county administration is in Hamar. Hedmar ...

county to the north and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

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 municipality ...

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 wi ...

and

Aurskog Aurskog is a former municipality in Akershus county, Norway. The administrative centre was Aursmoen. Aurskog was the location of the Battle of Toverud. The parish of ''Urskog'' was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskaps ...

to form the new municipality

Aurskog-Høland Aurskog-Høland is a municipality in Akershus 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 county was m ...

. 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, the last element is ''skog'' meaning 'forest, woodland'. The meaning of the name ''Setten'' is unknown. The Soot Canal, 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 List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vinger. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Skotter ...

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 regis ...

banen railroad, then through several lakes and a long narrow timbercanal, finally ending into the lake Setten where the timber was transported further south all the way to

Halden Halden (), between 1665 and 1928 known as Fredrikshald, is both a List of cities in Norway, town and a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Østfold Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The municipality borders Sarpsborg to the northwest, R ...

. 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 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

. 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