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Ofoten Municipality

*Ofoten herred*
Ofoten Municipality Ofoten herred
Former municipality
	Nordland within Norway
	Ofoten within Nordland
	Coordinates: 68°26′11″N 17°23′54″E / 68.4363°N 17.3983°E
Country	Norway
County	Nordland
District	Ofoten
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Disestablished	1 Jan 1884
• Succeeded by	Ankenes Municipality and Evenes Municipality
Administrative centre	Narvik
Government
• Mayor	Bertheus Normann (1882-1884)
Area (upon dissolution)
• Total	2,998.3 km2 (1,157.7 sq mi)
Highest elevation	1,893.7 m (6,212.9 ft)
Population (1884)
• Total	4,131
• Density	1.4/km2 (3.6/sq mi)
Demonym	Ofoting
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1853
	Data from Statistics Norway

Ofoten is a former municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The 2,998.3-square-kilometre (1,157.7 sq mi) municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1884. The municipality included the areas on both sides of the inner part of the Ofotfjorden mostly in what is now Narvik Municipality and Evenes Municipality. The administrative centre of Ofoten was the village of Narvik (which later became a town in 1902). After the municipality was dissolved in 1884, the name Ofoten has been used to refer to the region that once was this municipality.^[5]

General information

The municipality of Ofoten was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1884, the municipality ceased to exist when it was split into two: Ankenes Municipality (population: 1,734) in the east and Evindnæs Municipality (population: 2,397) in the west.^[6]

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the local Ofotfjorden (Old Norse: Ófóti) since the fjord is the central feature of the area as well as the name of the whole Ofoten region. The first element of the name has an uncertain meaning. The last element is fótr which means "foot". The oldest form of the name could have been Úffóti. In this case, the first element is úfr which means "Eurasian eagle-owl". The three inner branches of the Ofotfjord might have been compared with the three claws of an owl.^[5]^[7]

Churches

The Church of Norway had one parish (sokn) within Ofoten Municipality. At the time of the municipal dissolution, it was part of the Ofoten prestegjeld and the Nordre Salten prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland.^[8]

**Churches in Ofoten**
Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Ankenes	Ankenes Church	Ankenesstranda	1867
Evenes	Evenes Church	Evenes	1800

Geography

The highest point in the municipality is the 1,893.7-metre (6,213 ft) tall mountain Storsteinsfjellet.^[1] The municipality was located at the inner part of the Ofotfjorden, along the border with Sweden (to the east and south). To the west was Lødingen Municipality and Tjeldsund Municipality. To the north was Ibestad Municipality and Bardu Municipality (both in Troms county).

Government

While it existed, this municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[9]

Mayors

The mayor (Norwegian: ordfører) of Ofoten was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who held this position::^[10]

1838–1844: Johan Klitzing Iversen
1844–1846: unknown
1846–1848: Johan Klitzing Iversen
1848–1852: Peder Slangerup Schjønning
1852–1854: unknown
1854–1856: Johan Klitzing Iversen
1857–1858: Martinius P. Hønich Jensen
1859–1866: Johan Christian Dahlsen
1867–1872: Hans Olai Christoffersen
1873–1875: Johan T.S. Østberg
1875–1881: Esten A. Osmark
1882–1884: Bertheus Normann