Tyra canal
In the early 20th century the mill owner Axel R. Jansson lived at the Upperud Manor. He found that it took him to long to go by boat from Upperud to the island Björkön. He went to this island very often, both for hunting and to enjoy the beautiful nature there. At times when he had too little work for the workers at the mill he used them to dig and blast a canal across Sundsholmen which made his route much shorter. At this time he owned the land.
This is one theory on why the canal was built. Another theory is that is was built to ease the stream in the narrow gap between Sundsholmen and the Östebo peninsula. This is one of the most narrow passages in the Dalsland canal area and the stream was often very strong, making it difficult especially for sailing ships to get upstreams to Upperud.
The construction drawings for the canal were made in 1914 and the cost was estimated to 348 SEK. The canal was built in 1915, and the real cost for it is unknown.
The canal is 230 meter long, somewhat more then 2 meter wide and 0,9 meter deep at normal elevation. It was built with some beautiful stone embankments. The inspector at Upperud Manor, Bror Alvring, was responsible for the works.
In polular speech the canal soon was named Tyra Canal after Jansson's secretary Thyra Ohlson. This is now the more or less offical name of the canal.
The canal now belongs to Rolf Lundberg, grandson of one of Axel R. Jansson's sisters. In the 1990:ies he cleaned up the canal from trees at the embankments and he also used a excavator to deepen the canal.
Now he has plans to reinforce the stone embankments too.
Today the canal is frequently used by canoes and other small boats.
Sources: Rolf Lundberg, owner of the canal, 2003, Sten Torstensson at the Dalsland Museum and Ingmar Andersson 2002.
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