Kulturstigen 8
First telephone, and first Post Office, etc
The old village street splitted up right here. One road continued eastward to Oskar Forssén and further along the river bank. The other one led further west down to the lake, across the lake to Norrsidan - by boat or on ice - and from there on to Sjulnäs, Bergnäsudden, Nyliden, Arjeplog, Gullön, Arvidsjaur.
It was a "busy road" until the 1940’s when the country roads with the intersection in the village started to be used.
The first telephone arrived in the village in 1917. It was installed here on the cape at August Burman’s and after a few years it became a switchboard.
Villagers who wanted to call had to come here to see Burman, but often it was quite difficult to get calls. The reason for this was the extremely poor management. The telephone cord was fixed in the trees along the line from Sjulnäs to Slagnäs - for about one mile.
A little windy weather was enough to cut off the call.
The first subscribers were:
No.1 'Konsum'
No.2 SJ
No.3 Konrad Nilsson's shop
No.4 Manfred Sundström
No.5 Jonas E. Löfmark, north side.
The village switchboard was shut down in 1968 during the introduction of automation.
First post office, etc.
Gustav Lundmark from Skeutik, operated the first route in this region - Bergnäsudden - Sunnanå, with postal delivery, once a week.
After him, Sjul-Ersa Nila from Bethlehem took care of the important task and from the end of the 1920’s it was Gustav Löfmark from Slagnäs.
When the railway started operation in 1932, the mail arrived by train.
August Burman's first post office was set up here. In 1948, it was moved to Israel Forssén, where today’s village post office is located.
Burman's house (demolished in 1955) was home to many things ...
The school was located here from 1927-1934. (The new school building started operation for the spring semester of 1935)
A private shop was also installed here for a few years as well as railway workers' families, who lived in this house.
Later, during Second World War there was an air surveillance tower with "tower swallows" (= flight attendants) on top of the roof.
The library was housed here from 1951 to 1969; starting 1955, it was situated in the new building.
And down by the lake, Hultman's slaughterhouse was located in the bakery during the railway era ...