Today on National Day, the flag is hoisted at Långå Skans. The Swedish flag! That is the point and the meaning of both the fort and this day that it is precisely the Swedish flag that is hoisted. No one else's national flag. After the peace, which was concluded in Brömsebro in Blekinge in August 1645, belongs to Härjedalen Sweden and Långå became a strategically important place in the country's defense.
A couple of weeks ago, Norway celebrated its national day, seventeenth of May! Just over ten miles west of Långå, people were dressed in their national costumes, bunader, if you had not bought new fine clothes, seventeenth of May! The school orchestras marched, children and adults waving Norwegian flags; it was a party atmosphere that was rooted in emotion, memories and belonging of national independence in peace. There is a strong reason for this in a nation where the Nazis murdered, rape, burned and exploded as late as the 1940s. The fact that we have had peace in our country for more than two hundred years does not prevent us from making this day a holiday for the same reasons that people celebrate their day in Norway.
Långå Skans as we see it today was ready after a few intensive working months in the summer 1700 and then replaced the old fort. A gigantic project that required just over 200 man and which characterized the whole village. It is tempting to compare with the creation of Grundsjödammen in the early 1970s.
Långåljusnan flows on the south side of the fort, or ‘Long yy’. In the same way it flows today as then. In the stream from Bäkerholmen's westernmost tip towards the fort, the trout are still standing. Same family now as then. Admirable endurance despite power regulation where wind power today forms 'spring flood' several times a day; if it does not blow, you have to top up with hydropower because our needs and requirements are such.
Here is coarse candle nutrition, which more and more develop their locally distinctive features. Långåljusnan is a trapped part between two power plant dams. To benefit the continued development of the stocks, Långåfisket is investing in breeding herds and the old fry pond is being restored near the fort.. When they have grown up there, they are released into the stream that previously supplied the fort's moat and flows out into "Långå åå", Långåljusnan!
The water flow, 'Strykan', is a set table for trout and other fish that live here. It is typical that when the current edges collide with the calmer water masses, they are 'slowed down' in the contact surface and the food swirls around for a few seconds., enough time for the fish to have time to choose the best treats. If you have managed to land your fly upstream in the whirlpools, you participate in the presentation of interesting delicacies. Heavy nymphs and heavier wet fly, typ Goal, works.
Start at the bottom of the rampart, admittedly a bit awkward, but speycast works, and fish step by step upstream. If you start from the top and go down, all the trout will have time to see you and retreat.
When you have fished about thirty meters, you are where the soldiers fetched water from the river. It consumed large quantities that were carried in heavy wooden buckets. Embarrassing! A word that explains what it's for. The first stage is about water and you can guess that bar reasonably has to do with 'carry'. ‘Ember’ means water in Old Swedish and is one of the explanations why Emån is called what it is called.
Right here you see the high flagpole in the fort. On National Day and many other days, the flag is hoisted. The Swedish! Helge Jonsson on 6to June 2019