Stocka canal

From Tillsjötjärn to the saw mill at Stocka.


The start at Norrtjärn	The dam gate	Towards the old saw mill.	"Bosse's" bridge


"Tjärna"	The start of the Saw canal	Under the road bridge


Towards the powerplant by the burnt down saw mill	The powerplant	Downstreams the powerplant


"Hjulbäcken"	Downstreams Hjulbäcken	By the sea and Stocka harbour

Short history:
A saw mill was built in Stocka 1856. At the same time a canal was built from Tillsjötjärn to the new mill to provide the mill with waterpower and to ease the transports of timber to the mill.
The canal followed an old creek, but the route was changed at many places and the canal was dug wider and deeper to increse the waterflow. Workers from Värmland built the canal.
The canal is about 200 meters long.
To make the transports easier the creeks between Tillsjötjärn and Norrsjön, as well as between Norrsjön and Sörsjön, were enlarged. The Harmånger creek was also used for timber driving to the saw mill.
The canal has never been used by boats. But boats were used for timber driving on creeks and lakes all the way to the canal.
Timber driving on the canal was used as long as the mill was used. From the beginning the timber was drivven all the way from the woods to the mill, but later it was transported on trucks from the woods to Norrsjön or Sörsjön and drivven the last bit to the mill.
East of the mill is a bay of Bay of Bothnia were ships anchored and loaded. The goods were transported to the ships by barges. In the 1960ies a quay was built beside the saw mill and the ships could load their cargo directly from the mill.
The mill at Stocka was the eighth biggest in Sweden, but in 1993 it was closed. When the machinery was sold and taken away the mill burnt down.

Sources: Tage Jonsson in Stocka, 2004.
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