Prior to its dissolution in 2005, the 465-square-kilometre (180 sq mi) municipality was the 216th largest by area out of the 434 municipalities in Norway. Skjerstad Municipality was the 408th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of about 1,030. The municipality's population density was 2.2 inhabitants per square kilometre (5.7/sq mi) and its population had decreased by 15.8% over the previous 10-year period.[6][7]
General information
The municipality of Skjerstad was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1905, most of Skjerstad Municipality located on the north side of the Skjerstadfjorden (population: 4,646) was separated to form the new Fauske Municipality. In 1949, a small district of Skjerstad Municipality (population: 10) was transferred to neighboring Saltdal Municipality. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1963, the small area of Skjerstad Municipality on the north side of the fjord (population: 224) was transferred to neighboring Bodin Municipality. On 1 January 2005, Skjerstad Municipality was merged with Bodø Municipality to form a new, larger Bodø Municipality. Just prior to the merger (in 2004), the population of Skjerstad Municipality was 1,030.[8]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Skjerstad farm (Old Norse: Skírastaða) since the first Skjerstad Church was built there. The first element possibly comes from the old name for the local river skírr which means "pure" or "clear". The last element is staða which means "homestead" or "farm".[5][9]
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 14 July 1991 and they were in use until 1 January 2005 when the municipality was dissolved. The official blazon is "Vert, a millstone argent" (Norwegian: I grønt en sølv kvernstein). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a millstone or grinding stone. The millstone has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The millstone was chosen to symbolize all the large and small mills that existed in Skjerstad in the past. The arms were designed by Arvid Sveen.[10][11][12]
The mayor (Norwegian: ordfører) of Skjerstad was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who held this position:[14][15]
The municipal council(Kommunestyre) of Skjerstad was made up of 13 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.
^Berg, Gunnar (1975). Bygdebok for Skjerstad og Fauske (in Norwegian). Bodø: kommunene Fauske og Skjerstad.
^"Ordførere i Skjerstad" (in Norwegian). Historien i Skjerstad. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 11 March 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
