RJUKAN
The town was created by Norsk Hydro at the turn of the century. The name comes from Rjukanfossen, the "smoking" falls, which were a famous sight before Sam Eyde harnessed it as the new community's most important source of power. Before it was developed by Hydro, Vestfjorddalen was a road-less, barely accessible out-of-the-way place.
In the course of just a few years it was transformed into a thriving industrial area which at one time numbered some 9,000 inhabitants - a pioneering undertaking without parallel in Norwegian industrial history.
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