Mustadfors lock, Dalsland Canal
Dals Långed

Lock chambers: 1
Elevation: 3,1 m
Duration: 15 min

Opening hours

The Mustadfors lock is a single lock with a height difference of 3,1 m. When arriving at the lock from Katrineholmshöljen, it is important to keep well outside the spar buoy south of the lock. At the waiting jetty north of Mustadfors, a buoy marks the area near the jetty where the depth is less than 1,8 m. 

Buy your lock tickets here

History

The history of Mustadfors goes back at least 3000 years. It was then that the people of the Bronze Age carved their life stories in stone at Högsbyn along the banks of Lake Råvarpen just south of Mustadfors. One might say it was the Facebook of the Bronze Age. Some of the carvings in the rocks are a bit difficult to interpret. One, for example, shows a man doing a backward somersault on board a ship. It seems to have been a fun time to live. 

As in so many areas in the lake- and forest-rich Dalsland, the community was built up around a mill. The mill was called Katrineholm and was founded in the late 18th century. Katrineholm was shut down in the mid-1800s but resurfaced years later in the 1940s when Norwegian company O. Mustad & Son bought the entire factory and started manufacturing horseshoe nails. A few years later, the community changed its name to Mustadfors. There was already a Katrineholm, you see, and it was becoming a bit of a headache for the post office.  

Today, Mustadsfors Bruk is a global leader in horseshoe nails. As early as the 1930s, about 75 percent of production was exported. The company is now run by the seventh generation of Mustads and the production methods that made the company so successful in their niche are top secret.  

In the years around the turn of the 19th century, Mustadfors Bruk helped build up the Mustadfors community. Among other things, by building homes for the company’s employees.