Saltdal

Saltdal (Sálát) is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rognan. Other villages in Saltdal include Røkland and Lønsdal. The municipality is the 26th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Saltdal is the 187th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 4,617. The municipality's population density is and its population has decreased by 2% over the previous 10-year period. The municipality of Saltdal was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1949, a small area of Skjerstad Municipality (population: 10) was transferred to Saltdal. Other than that one change, the borders have never changed. The Old Norse form of the name must have been Salptardalr. The first element is the genitive case of the river name Salpt which means "strong steam", (now Saltdalselva, which runs through Saltdal) and the last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale". The coat of arms was granted on 28 October 1988. The official blazon is "Gules, a rowan twig Or" (I rødt en gull rognekvist). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is two rowan twigs. The rowan twig has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. This design was chosen to represent nature and the prevalence of rowan forests in the municipality. They are also canting arms because the Norwegian word for rowan is rogn and the municipal centre is the village of Rognan. The arms were designed by Arvid Sveen. The Church of Norway has two parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Saltdal. It is part of the Salten prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland. During World War II, the Germans decided to lengthen the Nordland Line from Lønsdal in Saltfjellet going northwards. Over a period of three years, the original plan was to first have both the road and the railroad all the way to Narvik and then on to Kirkenes, but they only managed to build the railroad to Bodø.