Our history

Hydropower is beginning to be used

Large parts of what would become the Dalsland canal pass through a mere two kilometers wide rock crack. It is a pearl string of large, long narrow lakes, rivers, streams and small lakes under the collective name Upperudsälven. It dewateres the large beautiful lakes in northwestern Dalsland respectively southwestern Värmland - plus some Norwegian border lakes.

Early on, the hydroelectric power in the Upperudsälven river was used. Already in 1695 there were five ironworks in operation. Upperud and Åmål were import and shipping ports for the ore and the finished forging. To reach the mills, sea transport was used as far as possible, but all transhipments between the lakes were both time-consuming and costly.

The works era begins

During the 18th century more ironworks grew up after the Upperälven river. One was built at Billingsfors where one of the first owners was named Leonard Magnus Uggla. He, like other mill-owners in the Dalsland-Nordmarken, supported the efforts to channel the Upperudsälven river's water system to remove the most difficult rivers from Upperud and up to Lake Laxsjön. Thus it can be said that a certain albeit modest beginning to a channelization had been taken.

In the following century, iron handling developed rapidly. In Dalsland-Nordmarken were found in 1850:

9 iron manu factories
1 blast furnace
4 steel mills
13 iron hammers and rolling mills
Most of the mills and saws were located at the rapids where we find the locks in the Dalsland canal today.

The canal is being built

Given the transport problems of the expanding user movement, it is not difficult to understand that demands for a channelization grew ever stronger. Therefore, on several occasions during the 1700-1800s, Dalsland and Warmland Riksdag one motioned that the state should provide both loans and grants, so that a canal could be built, but when the population of Dalsland - southwest Värmland disagreed which of the submitted proposals for the stretch of the channel that were the best, nor was the parliament prepared to put up with money.

Eventually, however, the conflicting wills were agreed and in 1863 Parliament finally gave the go-ahead for the construction of the Dalsland canal. The decision came just over 100 years after the issue of a canal through Dalsland-Nordmarken was first addressed. Now it was the fast growing transport costs of the ironworks as well as the fact that the debate was further fueled by the opening of Trollhätte Canal, which opened Vänern towards the western sea, in 1800. The political situation in the country also contributed to the positive decision. Denmark had in 1814 been forced to relinquish Norway to Sweden and a canal through Dalsland-Värmland would have both strategic and political significance.

The building was completed in four years against the estimated seven-eight, and in September 1868, during the great rejoicing of the canal, was opened by Karl XV. Centennial dreams had thus become a reality.

Bad starting position

But the starting point for the canal was not the best in the early 1870s. The market for hardware was declining, and this also sometimes applied to the timber market. In addition, the company was affected by competition from two directions. A new Norwegian waterway Örje-Knappetkanalen, completed in 1875, took over the transport of Norwegian timber, which for several years gave the Dalsland canal the best income. Another tough competitor was Dalsland's railway and its continuation in Norway.

Other newly constructed railways also came to create problems for the canal's profitability in the next few years.

For the people in common, however, the new canal came to mean a lot. Canal boats and passenger ships broke the insulation. New goods and new impulses reached the public and shipping costs fell radically. It is no exaggeration to say that the canal also created the practical conditions for the cultural and business transformation that large parts of Dalsland and southwest Värmland underwent during the 1870-1880s.

Towards better times

The Board of Directors of Dalslands Kanal AB took a number of measures to try to meet the competition from the railway. Among other things, the company offered favorable contracts to newly established companies, which were thus linked to the channel for a long time. The result was that traffic on the canal gradually increased and during the 1920s and 1930s, the Dalsland canal was one of the busiest waterways in the country.

It was the long trail of bundled paperwood - so-called. "Bogs" - which were mainly behind the upswing and up to the 1950s, this traffic was so large that the company did not make a loss.

Difficult blows give new investments

At the end of the 1950s, however, the company suffered two severe blows. On the one hand, the lorries eventually competed out the canal transport of paperwood, and on the other hand, a dam erupted in the autumn flood in 1961. The costs of repairing this became very large and the company's finances were strained. As a contribution to the dam repair, the company received a state grant of SEK 100,000 in 1965, provided that it maintained its operations until July 1, 1968. Meanwhile, the Swedish Maritime Administration investigated the issue of continued operations for the canal and concluded that the company must continue to count annual operating deficits. These were not state powers willing to cover. The municipalities and county councils then decided to step in with annual grants. However, through the AMS / Länsarbetsnämnd and Riksantikvarieämbetet (the National Antiquities Office), the state has invested significant amounts in the form of emergency work and so-called conservation efforts, over the years.

New times

The last freighter left the Dalsland canal in the early 1970s and the closing income from the transport of paperwood had then completely ceased. Only about 50 recreational boats and a few canoes were included in each sailing season during the 1960s, which did not generate any income to speak of. Instead, it was tourism that would save the canal. And the result did not wait. The number of locks increased dramatically during the 1970s and 1980s. Only one passenger boat was in 1965. Today there are three. On the initiative of the then Dalslands Tourist Traffic Association, a permanent organization was created in 1966 for the transport of leisure boats between Otteid on the Dalsland canal and Halden in Norway. With that, the canal opened to the west sea. Later, Otteid came to be replaced by Nössemark. Over the years more transport lines have been established.

A new livelihood in the sparse countryside

More than half of the road users on the canal today are foreigners, which provides both Dalsland-Nordmarken with valuable foreign exchange income. Many people think that without Dalsland's canal, Dalsland-Nordmarken would be touristy rather uninteresting. And if the canal were closed down, hundreds of jobs would disappear from the channel-dependent industries. Consequently, continued development work is ongoing within the channel company.

The value of the channel can thankfully not only be valued in money. As a cultural-historical monument, it is invaluable to our country and as a tourist trail for boaters and canoeists from near and far, it is actually "outstanding" in Northern Europe ...

Pictures from the Vänersborg Museum.