Kulturstigen
1&2

With the establishment of industrialism in our country, with trade unions, newspapers and radio, as well as with a slowly increasing literacy among our settlers, the development of our region gradually changed. The principles of self-sufficiency, however, have endured well into our century, largely unaffected by all new impressions from outside and all other developments.

 

Newspapers (which reached the village at the beginning of the 20th century were Tidningen Afton-Bladet, Västerbottens Folkblad and Triumf (the latter was the village's first women's newspaper).

 

In 1926 the Forestry and Floatation Trade Union was founded, whose members laid the foundation stone for the ABF traveling library, which later became the Slagnäs library, for a fee of 15 Öre / month (later 25 Öre).

 

The next big "Participation in the World" was given when the radio found it’s way to the village in 1925.

 

The biggest change occurred when the 'Inlandsbanan' - the major railroad project - was realized in the 1920s (it was finished in 1932). The route of the inland railway through the village, rail workers and their families and everything else that went with it, changed the village and its conditions in many ways. This becomes most evident if we consider the distribution of buildings and the location of railways and highways. Initially, all the properties were on the lake and along the course of the river with a road connecting the farms. From the 1920’s this became the periphery, as all the buildings were now built between the railway, from Lomtjärn to Laxviken.

 

The village also got a café, a guest house, shops, a sawmill, a carpentry shop, a blacksmith's shop, an entertainment room, a dancefloor and much more. The pure settler community, with its seasonal work and, in many ways, strict work requirements for the survival of the family, saw a new era ahead.

 

The turning point away from pure settler life had become a reality.