Bindal

Infobox_Kommune
name=Bindal
idnumber=1811
county=Nordland
landscape=Helgeland
capital=Terråk
governor=Magne Paulsen (Ap)
governor_as_of=2003
arearank=76
area=1265
arealand=1193
areapercent=0.39
population_as_of=2004
populationrank=347
population=1,804
populationpercent=0.04
populationdensity=2
populationincrease=-12.1
demonym=Bindaling
language=Bokmål
lat_deg=65| lat_min=5| lat_sec=48| lon_deg=12| lon_min=35| lon_sec=19
utm_zone=33W| utm_northing=7221401 |utm_easting=0386726| geo_cat=adm2nd




munwebpage=www.bindal.kommune.no

Bindal is a municipality in the Helgeland district in the extreme southwest of the county of Nordland, Norway. Bindal borders on to four municipalities in Nord-Trøndelag, Høylandet and Nærøy in the south, Namsskogan in the southeast and Leka in the west. Otherwise the Bindal has borders with Sømna, Brønnøy and Grane.

In 1838 the parish of Bindal was split in two municipalities (see formannskapsdistrikt), because the border between the counties of Nord-Trøndelag and Nordland divided the parish in two parts. In 1852 was the border moved south to its current position, and the municipalities of Nordbindalen and Sørbindalen were merged together.

The name

The Norse form of the name was "Birnudalr". The first element is the genitive case of the rivername "Birna" (now Åbjøra), the last element is "dalr" m 'valley, dale'. The rivername is derived from "birna" f 'she-bear'.

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times (1990). It shows six rivets (to represent the boat building in the municipality).

Geography

From the coast, the municipality reaches into the mountains toward the Majavatn lake. The tallest mountain is the 1,058 m high Heilhornet ( [http://www.westcoastpeaks.com/Peaks/heilhornet.html ] ).

Economics

The most important industries in Bindal are farming and forestry. The largest secondary industry is the door manufacturer Bindalsbruket with about 130 employees. Bindal has a traditional boat-building industry and "Nordland boats" are still manufactured.

Culture

Boat races for "Nordland boats" are arranged annually in the main population centre of Terråk in the last weekend of June. The 2005 race was the 27th one.

Education

Barak has five schools, three of them are classified as independent and therefore not administered by the municipality.

*Terråk skole in Terråk is a 1st-10th grade school and the largest in Bindal with 100 students attending it.
*Harangsfjord skole in Harangsfjord is a local 1st-7th grade school with only six students.
*Kjella friskole, one of the independent schools, is located in Sørhorsfjord. It is a 1st-10th grade school and has 56 students.
*Åbygda friskole, another independent school is located in Terråk. It is a 1st-7th grade school with 18 students.
*Bindalseidet friskole is an independent school located in Bindalseidet. It is a 1st-10th grade school with 70 students.