Sunday drive to Nyksund

June 13, 2010
It’s Sunday in Sortland and we have been invited to spend the afternoon in the coastal village of Nyksund in the Vesterålen area of Northern Norway. Our host for the day is Jan Christiansen, a former resident of Nyksund and large owner of the village today. As we drive the windy roads to the small town, Jan tells us a little history about the old fisherman’s village. When Jan was growing up, Nyksund was a town of 250 permanent residents that grew to about 1500 during high fishing season. His family was heavily interweaved into the history of the town from his grandmother who was the teacher at the local school and ran the town to his cousin who invented his own fishing machinery. Nowadays, Nyksund has about 25 permanent residents and while the Christensens do not live in Nyksund permanently, they do spend many weekends in the village and are planning to throw a big three day birthday celebration for their youngest son on August 7.

Entering Nyksund, the first thing you notice is that it is not much of a town! There is one small waterway cutting through what looks like a little island and there are about 10 houses on either side of the water. There is another row of houses behind the road, but that is the extent of the house. The first house greeting any visitors is a large white main house, where the Christiansens live when they are visiting town. The Christiansens also own several of the other homes in the area and have given away 800 meters of property to local residents in hopes of attracting new residents. Our first stop was to the local hall which has several old photographs and memorabilia on the walls, detailing the history of Nyksund. Jan tells us that this town has been settled and abandoned at least four times in the past 200 years. One big storm, in 1947, brought such large waves that boats tied on one end of the jetty were pushed over the jetty without a scrape on the bottom!

As big ships failed to navigate shallow waters and as road transportation became harder with poor roads, the town of Nyksund started to face a dwindling population. In the 1970s, Nyksund was officially a ghost town in need of much repair and attention in order to bring back residents. It was in 1986 that Jan met a professor in Berlin who was working with juvenile delinquents, mostly drug addicts, who were sent to a special boarding school for their last chance to clean up before being punished severely. After much discussion and overriding of the town council’s vote, Jan brought nearly 200 of those boys to Nyksund. His idea was to provide the boys with a summer project, hands on work cleaning up Nyksund with the understanding that if his no drug policy was violated, the perpetrator was to be sent back to Germany immediately. The town folk feared bringing the boys into town, partly for the drugs and partly for the fear of the boys impregnating the young girls. Jan personally stood up for the program and the summer was a turning point for Nyksund as the boys did more to clean up that town than was every done before. Jan had asked the local police to make periodic surprise visits to check for drugs, so as to keep the town at peace. Only once, Jan said, did a search turn up something and it was only half a joint. Sticking to his promise, he asked the owner of the joint to step forward or else the entire group would be sent home. One small boy stepped forward and took ownership and to thank him for his honesty, Jan decided to allow him to stay. Years later, in 1997, a young man came to Nyksund looking for Jan and asked him if he recognized the man. It turned out to be the same kid who was given a second chance and today, that young man was a father of four and a professor at a technical school in Berlin. Good intentions really do pay themselves forward!

While looking through the town memorabilia, Jan pointed to a machine that looked like a small box. This was his cousin’s invention; an automatic reel for fishing to help save the shoulders and arms of the fishermen who spend their days out on the water. Jan remembers running around the town finding rubber bands and other things his cousin would need to test out the machine. His cousin almost went broke applying for an international patent, but thankfully did eventually succeed. Jan remembers taking the invention to a fishing conference in Seattle one year and impressing those in attendance. One corporate man asked Jan how many they would be able to make and Jan said “many.” When they got home, they received a fax from the man asking for 10,000 machines. His cousin had to call back and say they could deliver 20 but would need more time for 10,000… sadly, they didn’t hear back from the company again!

The rest of the tour through the town included a stop at the smithery, Nyksundsmia. Smed Vebjørn Sommerset, the local blacksmith, opened shop about four years ago and has spent most of the time making his own tools. Apparently, a blacksmith must make his own tools before he can start working on other projects. Smed is now starting to make small pieces and is currently working on a sign for his studio. He is also converting the front part of his studio into a little showroom. Smed gave us little souvenir pendants to remind us of Nyksund. My pendant is a Thor’s hammer, which the Viking God used to create thunder and lightning.

Our next stop in Nyksund is to the local church, built in 1887. The history of the church is a funny story that started with a few guys who were drinking heavily one night. At the time, there were no bathrooms attached to the building so you’d have to go outside to take care of business. One of the men, drunk and stumbling, went outside to go to the bathroom but was startled by noises he heard. He didn’t realize it was the ocean but instead convinced himself it was the devil. At the time, Jan’s grandmother not only worked at the local school but also ran the town. In order to pacify the men, she suggested building a church and for 4,780 NOK, this church was built. The church is a simple box building with all the artwork and objects donated by town residents. Just last year, the town restored one of the outside walls for 250,000 NOK alone!

Our day in Nyksund ended with a coffee break at Jan’s house, the main house situated near the entrance of town. In addition to a wide selection of refreshments and desserts, Jan and his wife, Britt, served us lefse. Lefse is a traditional Norwegian flatbread, served either as tjukklefse (thin bread) or tykklefse (thick bread). Lefse is made out of potato, milk or cream and flour and cooked on a griddle. There are many ways of flavoring lefse but one of the most popular ones and the one we tried today is layering the lefse with cinnamon, sugar and butter. Yum!

Interesting Notes and Observations:
There is a large Norwegian contingency in the United States, mostly based in Minnesota and Seattle, Washington. In 1900, Norway was actually one of the poorest countries in Europe and almost half of the population emigrated to the United States in search of better jobs. Today, Norway is the richest country in Europe, mostly due to the discovery and mining of oil.

Norwegians tend to just look at a problem and take the obvious solution. This can be anything as simple as binders; rather than having to pull them out by the sides when they are stacked on the shelves, the Norwegian binders have holes to put your finger in and pull out efficiently. This also is true for bigger issues like the bank cards. The Norwegian bank cards have a picture ID, name and social security number (not necessary in the United States) on the back of the bank cards, thus eliminating the odds of identity theft. The flip side, though, is that such simple solutions are more costly and thus, likely not able to translate into the American system.