Lofoden
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or LOFOTEN, a chain of islands on the N. W. coast of Norway, stretching S. W. and N. E. for 150 miles. They include the Lofoden proper and the Vesteraalen, lying further N. The largest islands are Hind, And, and Lang in the Vesteraalen group, and East Vaag, West Vaag, Flakstad , and Moskenäs in the Lofoden proper . Total area, 2,247 square miles. All of them are rugged and mountainous . The highest point is 3,090 feet above sealevel. The waters on the E. side of these islands are visited in January to March every year by vast shoals of codfish, which attract a large fleet of fishermen. The average number of boats is 5,000 to 6,000, manned by 28,000 to 30,000 men. Besides fishing , sheep-farming is also carried on. The permanent population is about 40,000. Jackson co., Ill., Feb. 9, 1826. The Mexican War broke out when Logan was 20, and he at once enlisted and was made a lieutenant. After the war he studied and was admitted to the bar in 1851, the same year he was elected to represent Jackson and Franklin counties in the Legislature, and from that time was almost uninterruptedly in the public service, either civil or military. He was twice re-elected to the Legislature, and in 1856 was a Democratic presidential elector. He enlisted on the outbreak of being distinguished the Civil War, and rose to the rank of major-general, throughout the struggle for valor and patriotism; elected United States Senator from Illinois 1871-1877-1885-1889; was nominated for the vice-presidency on the ticket headed by James G. Blaine, 1884, but was defeated . He died in Washington, D. C., Dec. 26, 1886. DUL
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The geography Collier's set out in 1921 is still accurate — the chain runs some 150 miles off northwest Norway, and the winter cod (skrei) still arrive between January and March. What has gone is the human scale: instead of the 5,000–6,000 open boats and 28,000–30,000 men described here, the season is now worked by a far smaller fleet of motorised, quota-regulated vessels, and tourism, salmon farming and the shipping of dried cod abroad matter as much as the fishery. In March 1941 the islands saw the war Collier's could not foresee, when the British raid Operation Claymore burned the fish-oil plants at Svolvær and Stamsund and seized German cipher material. Since then bridges and undersea tunnels, and the Lofast mainland road link opened in 2007, have ended the islands' isolation, while proposals to drill for oil off the Lofoten shelf have been repeatedly blocked on environmental grounds.
Written for this edition, 2026.