About Ammarnäs
Ammarnäs lay for a long time in roadless land. The first road section from Ammarnäs to Gillesnuole was completed in 1923, but it was not until 1939 that there was a road the entire distance 90 km down to Sorsele. You had to work hard to get supplies.
Salt, flour, coffee and tobacco were purchased in Lycksele 240 km one way or at LA Meyer, Mo i Rana, Norway, 150 km one way, largely over the bare mountains.
Tourism gradually began as early as the end of the 1930s. Two sisters, Matti and Mandi Rehnman, ran Hotell Rehnman in Sorsele. These were persuaded by the governor Gustav Rosén to start an annex in Ammarnäs
Prehistory
The area around Gautsträsket, Vindelälven and Tjulån is rich in remains from prehistoric hunting culture. Above all, these are settlement remains. Among the loose finds can be mentioned scrapers of quartzite , a stone mallet with shaft gutter, whetstones and a dragonfly pulley of soapstone .
And
Sami history
Sami at the old church town in Ammarnäs 1871. The chapel can be seen at the top left.
In historical sources, the Ammarnäs area appears for the first time on Anders Bure's map of northern Scandinavia, printed in 1611. Gautsträsket is included there under the name Kaute T [räsk], while the nearby Tjulträsket is called Kunoko T [räsk]. On Jonas Persson Gedda's map of Ume Lapland from 1671, Lapland tax land is drawn around the entire Ammarnäs area.
In the area around Ammarnäs there are a number of remains from the old Sami abode which in many cases were in use during the first decades of the 20th century. Several graves and places of worship are also known
Ammarnäs is located within the Ume Sami language area. In connection with the forced relocation of Karesuando Sami in the 1930s, however, two North Sami families moved to Gran's Sami village, which means that this language is also represented in the area.
And
The settlers
The Ammarnäs area had an exclusively Sami population until the beginning of the 19th century. In 1803, a new building under the name Övre Gautsträsk was seen on the site that is today called Ammarnäs, but it remained deserted until it was resumed in 1820 by the Sami Måns Sjulsson in Gran and Abraham Sjulsson in Ran . However, it was Nils Johansson from Grundfors in Stensele who became the place's first active farmer after taking over the new building in 1827.
Potatoesbacken
Agriculture in Ammarnäs was largely based on meadow farming, mainly conducted in the delta land that forms at the mouths of the Vindelälven and Tjulån rivers. The meadows are flooded by the spring flood every year and are thus naturally fertilized. The hay was collected in barns, which are still largely preserved. The frost was a serious problem for agriculture, but potato land was planted on the south side of one of the three large moraine hills, known as Potatisbacken .
And
The chapel site
Ammarnäs chapel was added in 1858 to replace Jillesnåle chapel as the bare ground church site for the Sami . The name Ammarnäs was initially used in connection with the church square. Around the church, a Sami church town grew up with simple post huts.
And
National interest in cultural environmental care
Ammarnäs is of national interest for cultural environmental protection . Expressions of national interest are the church with the Sami church town, Gautsträsket's delta landscape with hay and pastures with many meadow barns and Potatisbacken in the middle of the village.
