Sørfold

Infobox_Kommune
name=Sørfold
county=Nordland
idnumber=1845
landscape=Salten
capital=Straumen
governor=Lars Evjenth (AP)
governor_as_of=2007
arearank=82
area=1653
arealand=1109
areapercent=0.37
population_as_of=2004
populationrank=330
population=2,019
populationpercent=0.21
populationdensity=1
populationincrease=-2.7
demonym=Sørfoldværing
language=Bokmål
lat_deg=67| lat_min=13| lat_sec=14| lon_deg=15| lon_min=48| lon_sec=31
utm_zone=33W| utm_northing=7456216 |utm_easting=0534948| geo_cat=adm2nd

munwebpage=www.fauske.kommune.no

Sørfold is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway.

The old municipality of Folden was divided into Sørfold and Nordfold-Kjerringøy January 1, 1887.

The administrative centre of the municipality is Straumen.

The name

The municipality is named after the fjord Folda (Norse "*Fold"). The inner part of the fjord is divided into two arms Nordfolda ('the northern Folda') and Sørfolda ('the southern Folda'). The meaning of the fjordname is unknown (maybe 'the broad one').

Geography

The district's total land area is 1661.6 km² - of which 141.0 km² is covered with permanent ice and snow, and only 265.8 km² lies below the 150-m contour. The total length of coastline is 249 km. In 1987 only 3.2 km² was being farmed. Rago National Park, with its wild nature dominated by bare rock, streams and pine forest, is located in Sørfold. There are several nature reserves. Veikdalen nature reserve, roughly 300 m above sea level, protects a largely undisturbed pine and birch forest (some logging before 1918) with many standing dead pine trees ( [http://nordland.miljostatus.no/msf_themepage.aspx?m=1704#14836 Veikdalen] ).

The small village of Mørsvikbotten is located in the north of the district. Mørsvikbotten has a school, a grocery shop, a small church, an aquaculture co-op and a few camping sites. Five kilometers north of Mørsvikbotten lies the lake Mørsvikvatnet. In this area, Mørsry, the German army had a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II housing mostly Russian POWs. They were building a railway, which was intended to be a link between Fauske and Narvik. Some ruins of the camp, the foundations of the railway line, a tunnel and roads can still be observed. A small, now empty, cemetery for fallen Russian soldiers is located close to the camp, 50 m on the left-hand side just before the single concrete bridge. Other lakes are Andkjelvatnet, Sildhopvatnet and Trollvatnet.