Røros

Røros is a mining town in the cold uplands near the Swedish border. Its wooden houses grew around a copper smelter on the Hitterelva, while mines in the surrounding mountains supplied the ore. Agriculture was difficult at this altitude, yet miners and their families kept livestock and cultivated what they could, combining town life with the work of mountain farms.

Copper was found in the Røros mountains in 1644, and a productive mine opened at Storwartz the following year. In 1646 Christian IV granted the copper works privileges over a wide area around the mine, including access to forests, waterways and labour. Smelting required enormous quantities of charcoal and wood; farmers carried these supplies by horse and sledge, while finished copper travelled to Trondheim. Swedish troops burned the settlement in 1678 and again in 1679, but it was rebuilt.

As nearby woodland was exhausted, the works sought fuel farther away and established additional smelters near forests. A system completed in 1764 connected waterways between Lakes Femunden and Feragen, allowing timber to be floated towards Røros. During winter, frozen lakes also formed part of the route for carrying ore to the smelter at Femundshytta. The works depended on supplies from farmers well beyond its original privilege area. Mining thus reshaped a far larger landscape than the town itself, drawing together mines, forests, farms and transport routes.