When Flemming and I were in our “internet cafe” in ICA, we asked the staff whether they knew someone who could lend us a car for a day trip to Arjeplog. They discussed it, but there wasn’t such an option. We asked Östen, the manager of the airfield in Gargnäs, and he arranged his wife to work from home that day. Östen took her car for his trip to the forest to pick up more hjortron berries, and let us borrow his Volvo.
It was a dark, cold, and rainy summer (?) day. We headed for Arjeplog, 100 km north of Gargnäs, where Östen recommended to visit The Silver Museum. We stopped on our way for a coffee in ICA, and Flemming was so lucky not only to buy his favourite candy, but also a small tin of a licorice powder! He could deep his candy into that powder, so that it tasted even better!
We arrived to Arjeplog, and the first thing we saw was the city’s pink church, a landmark of Arjeplog. It was built in 1641, rebuilt in 1760 in the shape of a cross, and painted red. It has been known in its current pink colour since 1896:
After a brief walk around, we went to the Silver museum. The staff was simply astonished when they realised we were tourists from Denmark, flying around Sweden during these COVID-19 times. We deserved a warm welcome.
The founder of the Silver museum was the Lappmark doctor Einar Wallquist (1896 – 1985):
At the age of 26, after getting his degree in Stockholm, Einar Wallquist chose to work as a provincial doctor in the sparsely populated district of Arjeplog. He took big interest in preventive medicine, and in children’s health. The long trips he made to visit the sick people in their homes across the vast district meant that sometimes doctor Wallquist had to stay overnight at his patients’ homes. It was these visits that sparked his interest in the district’s people and culture, and he soon began seriously collecting artefacts, documents and stories from the Arjeplog municipality.
In 1965, Einar Wallquist opened a museum in Arjeplog, called Silvermuseet:
It is also one of the best museums about Sami culture, and exhibits family silver and ornaments passed over centuries from generation to generation, in a secured vault:
After the museum, we went for a walk around the town – it is a small one with about 2,000 inhabitants. The whole Arjeplog municipality has around 3,000 inhabitants. People lived in this area as early as 10,000 years ago, following the end of the last ice age. The population in Arjeplog district was only a few hundred people in the 17th and 18th century, most of them Sami, and the rest of Sweden did not know much of them. Sami are the hunting and fishing people, who have their own language and traditionally breed reindeer in Northern Sweden.
In the 1620’s, silver was found in the area, and a mining industry was established there during 1635-1659. The amount of silver mined was around 36 kilograms per year. In 1659, the Danes and Norwegians – who were in a union at that time – attacked and burned down the mining village. The mining industry was then stalled for 120 years.
It was once again taken up in 1719, probably as a means of supporting the war of King Charles XII of Sweden. The mining was upheld until 1810, when the low profits, harsh climate and poor infrastructure led to its closure. There are still remains from that time in the village of Adolfström.
After a tour around the almost empty town, we drove back to Gargnäs. Flemming dreamed of meeting a bear or at least a moose. I wasn’t that adventurous, and happy to avoid meeting them. But we saw four reindeer by a road:
They were not afraid at all, and allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted:
The roads in that part of Sweden were often gravel, and they were very good. They are the cheapest and most reliable – during the long frosty winters and flooded springs many roads get destroyed, and Swedes are really skilled in restoring the gravel ones quickly.
“At home”, in our camping in Gargnäs, Flemming washed the Östen’s car under the rain:
We joked, that if the weather doesn’t improve and we get stuck there, we’d open The Gargnäs Car Wash, where Flemming would have a role of a car wash babe 🙂
We had a nice evening in our cottage, completely cut (internet-wise) from the entire world. Local ICA was closed, so was our “internet cafe”, and we couldn’t even check the weather for next day. Flemming prepared our favourite dish – fish and veggies, steamed:
And we also had hjortron berries with cream and sugar, Östen gave us. We hoped very much to have a chance to fly further south soon.